Clause 86 - Interpretation
Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill
3:00 pm
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)
The hon. Gentleman has hit the nail on the head. Countless people could, in one way or another, be held to have a close association with an individual to whom witness protection arrangements apply. Wherever we draw the line, it will be difficult. That is why we felt that, in the context of the statutory duty in relation to witness protection, the category that we have identified—members of the same family who live in the same household or who have lived in the same household—was as wide as we could draw it. Our provisions limit to those whom we feel to be at most obvious or immediate risk the circle of people whom the police can by default include in protection arrangements. We acknowledge that others with a relationship to the protected person might in some circumstances reasonably be regarded as at risk. However, there are other ways in which the needs of such people can be dealt with by the police outside the statutory scheme, consideration being given on a case-by-case basis to the degree of risk that they face.
The statutory scheme as outlined in the Bill is broad. We need to think about the limits that we set to it, which do not necessarily mean that the examples that the hon. Gentleman has given could not be dealt with. The issue is sensitive and it is difficult to know where to draw the line. However, we feel that we have drawn it as wide as possible while leaving some flexibility to consider other individuals, either in their own right or in terms of their association with a protected person. I hope that that satisfies the hon. Gentleman.