Clause 45 - Powers of entry: supplementary
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Phil Hope (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Corby, Labour/Co-operative)
Amendments Nos. 139 to 141 seek to clarify when the powers provided by the clause may be used. The amendments are unnecessary because the powers themselves are exercisable only for the purpose of investigating the cause of a fire or fire spread pursuant to the power of entry for that purpose provided by clause 44(1). The authorised person must act reasonably in any event because those powers are for the purpose of investigating the cause of a fire or fire spread. There is, therefore, no need to limit the power in the way intended by the hon. Gentleman.
The effect of amendments Nos. 142 and 143 would be to remove the power to destroy or damage an article or substance while taking a sample or dismantling an article, which is provided by the words
''not so as to destroy it or damage it''
in subsection (2)(d). A fire investigator must be able to investigate a fire properly by dismantling an article and taking samples, and that may, of necessity, involve some damage. However, the clause provides that damage to property may be deliberately inflicted only when it is necessary, which, by virtue of clause 44, means that it is necessary for the purpose of the investigation. We are describing all those powers in relation to clause 44(1), which is for the purpose of fire investigation. With that explanation, I hope that the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge will accept that his amendments are unnecessary.