Mr David Heath (Shadow Minister (Home Affairs), Home Affairs; Somerton & Frome, Liberal Democrat)

I apologise to the Committee for delaying its proceedings for just a moment. This is a case of ''If not now, when?'' I have a passion for legislative tidiness.

The clause deals with other Acts that are to be amended, repealed or revoked. Once the Government have had their way on schedule 7, there will be an amendment to, rather than a revocation or repeal of,

the Colonial Prisoners Removal Act 1884. We do not have a great number of colonial prisoners now—

Mr Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, Home, Constitutional & Legal Affairs; Beaconsfield, Conservative)

We have some.

Mr David Heath (Shadow Minister (Home Affairs), Home Affairs; Somerton & Frome, Liberal Democrat)

I am sure that they could be redefined so the 1884 Act is no longer necessary.

Mr Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, Home, Constitutional & Legal Affairs; Beaconsfield, Conservative)

I can think of one case from the Falkland Islands, which was interesting at the time it arose, although the prisoner may have been released by now. The Falkland Islands had no facilities to house him, and he had to be transferred to the United Kingdom.

Mr David Heath (Shadow Minister (Home Affairs), Home Affairs; Somerton & Frome, Liberal Democrat)

Obviously, there are still British overseas territories to be catered for, but I would like that to be done either under their own statute or under the more general statute. We keep some rather antiquated statutes around simply because of inertia—because no one can be bothered to rework them into something more current. That complicates the law. To the 1884 Act—which I suspect was designed for the colonies of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, our dominions at that time—on the statute book for the sake of the one person on the Falkland Islands seems nonsense. I wish that, when drafting legislation, we would try to consolidate where possible. To repeal an Act of doubtful utility and some antiquity and re-insert the provisions into another Act under a consequential amendment would be a better way to order our business than to require people to look through a great number of old statutes to find the one that applies. I leave that for the Minister's consideration.

Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe & Sale East, Labour)

I am sure that we all admire the hon. Gentleman's liking for legislative tidiness. However, the Colonial Prisoners Removal Act 1884 is still used, as the hon. Member for Beaconsfield said. It is old and has been amended on many occasions, but there are no current plans to consolidate.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 34 ordered to stand part of the Bill.