Clause 35 - Appeals against penalties
Identity Cards Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Woking, Conservative)
Amendment No. 41 is the one to which I am keen to get a response. It relates to what the court can do when people appeal to it. It can allow the appeal and cancel or reduce the penalty, or dismiss the appeal. We propose that it should be able to increase the penalty. The discretion of the court to increase a penalty is sometimes useful, because it can act as a disincentive. I have regularly known prosecutors appeal against a sentence to a higher court and get it increased. When one dismisses an appeal, can one increase the penalty or not? One probably ought to be able to, but the purpose of the amendment is to probe.