Drugs Bill
3:15 pm
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Chesham and Amersham, Conservative)
Two could make it almost a habit.
There is another situation to be addressed, because we are talking about the real world of street dealing. If someone other than the dealer has asked the courier to collect the drugs or drug-related cash, would that also suffice? The defence might try to establish that no element of request occurred because another third party had told the courier to go and work for the dealer. I want to make sure that all those elements are caught by the clause and its language.
However, I still find the language of legislation even less transparent now than it was in the 1990s, 1980s and 1970s. We could have had ''asks'' instead of ''requests''. The simpler the language, the better, in my view. I am on a bit of a mission to simplify and demystify legislation, and to put it into everyday language. At the very least, if the Minister will not accept either of our amendments, perhaps she will consider bringing the Bill back with the word ''asks'', which is simple and straightforward, and slightly less pompous and genteel than ''requests''.