Clause 16 - Samples submitted for further analysis
Drugs Bill
11:15 am
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Chesham and Amersham, Conservative)
Subsection (2) provides that
''If a requirement ceases to have effect by virtue of subsection (1), a police officer must so inform the person concerned.''
No time limit is attached to that provision. Will the Minister confirm that such information should be passed on on a fairly immediate basis? Police officers should not have an open-ended time scale in which to inform someone that they have effectively been let off, because that could be used in all sorts of ways about which I do not want to speculate in public, and which I hope will never arise.
Ms Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (reducing organised and international crime, anti drugs co-ordination and international and European issues), Home Office; Don Valley, Labour)
I agree that people should be informed of test results as soon as is practically possible, so that any undue stress can be removed.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 16 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 17 ordered to stand part of the Bill.