Clause 23 - Police powers for designated police support staff
Police (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Mr David Wilshire (Spelthorne, Conservative)
Indeed, I was coming on to that point. The purpose of amendment No. 127 is to remove investigating officers from the list, not as a blanket provision, but to tease out how the Government view investigating officers in these circumstances. I see a world of difference between a technical, highly trained expert who carries out the sort of scientific activity to which the hon. Gentleman referred, and someone given the opportunity to act as a quasi police officer. Amendment No. 129 deals with powers of arrest. It could be argued that the other two categories within a police station have a power to arrest—that is how I read the legislation, and I doubt that the hon. Gentleman would expect a civilian scenes of crime officer to be given powers of arrest in Great
Britain. On balance, I would not want them to have such powers.
An investigating officer with powers of arrest who has access to excluded and special procedure material—amendment No. 128 states that they should not have such access—sounds like a fully-blown police officer by any other name, except for the fact that the person is a civilian. I question whether we want that sort of police service anywhere in the United Kingdom. For me, this is not specifically a Northern Ireland issue. It would be helpful if the Minister could clarify what the Government have in mind with regard to the investigating officer.