Clause 73 - Urgent investigative steps
Criminal Justice Bill
6:15 pm
Mr David Cameron (Witney, Conservative)
What consideration was given by the Minister and his draftsmen to simplifying the clause and issuing more guidance? We should bear it in mind that the police will have to read and understand it.
One general point occurs to me from listening to this and previous debates. We are trying to do two things. First, we want to stop the unreasonable reinvestigation of people who have been acquitted. Secondly, we want there to be a set of clear and understandable rules about what the police can and cannot do in such circumstances. The Minister can think about my suggestion, and reject it on Report if it makes no sense, but would it not be simpler to impose a blanket ban on the reinvestigation of crimes of which people have been acquitted unless it is sanctioned by the Director of Public Prosecutions—with the one proviso, already mentioned, that if something urgent occurs, the police should have 24 or 48 hours in which to seek the DPP's permission retrospectively?
As for the rest, why not issue guidance on what the police can and cannot do when reinvestigating crimes rather than doing it though such complicated clauses? I worry that the police will get slightly lost. Having listened to the points made by the Front Benchers from both Opposition parties, it seems that the police may sometimes be nervous of investigating people for committing new crimes who have previously been acquitted of crimes. What I suggest would have at least one advantage: the police would not to have to plod though complicated laws that they did not understand if guidance was available.