Clause 5 - X-rays and ultrasound scans: England and Wales
Drugs Bill
10:30 pm
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Shadow Minister (Northern Ireland), Northern Ireland Affairs; Orkney and Shetland, Liberal Democrat)
Yes, that is perfectly fair. Guidance is one thing; putting a time limit in the Bill is another. However, the hon. Lady has done the Committee a service in tabling the amendment, which has allowed us to receive an indication from the Minister of what guidance might be given to police officers.
Amendment No. 38 would omit subsection (1)(b) of new section 55A and the reference to possession with the ''appropriate'' criminal intent. I do not support it. Appropriate criminal intent—possession with intent to supply, under section 5(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971—is quite proper; but to extend that provision, as the hon. Lady seeks to do, to cases of simple possession is neither necessary nor desirable.
In addition, and from a practical point of view, the provision is partly for the protection of the arrested person—another reason why the amendment is unnecessary. Possession with intent to supply, or cases in which there is a suspicion of possession with intent to supply, will usually but not necessarily involve the possession of larger quantities of controlled drugs, which can often be more injurious to the arrested person should the packaging split within them. It is right that we should deal with possession with intent to supply: the taking of X-rays or the carrying out of ultrasound examinations is a significant step, but it will not be routine, and it is appropriate in such circumstances.
I did not pick up the entirety of the intervention of the hon. Member for Reigate, but he seemed to be speaking about drugs being passed from one person to another in the back of a police van, suggesting that one person would hold them and then give them back. Interestingly enough, such possession would show ''appropriate'' criminal intent because it would be possession with the intent to supply—the person holding the drugs would intend giving them back. As we all know, supply is not necessarily supply for a consideration.