Clause 65 - Restriction on powers of arrest by
Electoral Administration Bill
3:30 pm
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Shadow Leader of the House, Law Officers (Constitutional Affairs); Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
Mr. Conway, I seek the Minister's guidance on this clause. I was slightly puzzled by it when I read it. It would appear to remove the power of citizen's arrest for those who are committing, or suspected of committing, an offence of personation in a polling station. I understand that much; that would appear to be the purport of the clause. However, I made, perhaps, the mistake of reading the explanatory notes, which take us into much deeper water. Can the Minister explain to us what they mean? It starts:
''This clause maintains the current position that the power of arrest without warrant of a person suspected of committing personation inside a polling station rests with a police constable only.''
That is consonant with what I had understood. However, it goes on to say:
''Without this provision, the amendments made by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 to sections 24 and 24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 would allow any person who has reasonable grounds for suspecting another person of being guilty of the offence inside a polling station to make an arrest.''
I understand that, although I am not sure necessarily that I do not want people to be detained if they are committing an act of personation in a polling station when there is no police constable around, but let us set that aside for the moment. The next sentence says:
''For personation outside a polling station or fraudulent applications for absent votes, the provisions of section 24 and 24A of the 1984 Act will, however, automatically apply because of the seriousness of the offence and the level of the penalty.''
I understand that that means that citizen's arrest is available for someone who is filling in an application form in their kitchen, and doing so fraudulently by claiming to be somebody else. Somebody could walk into that kitchen and make a citizen's arrest, but they could not do it if somebody walks into a polling station and says that if they are somebody whom they are not. I do not understand that differentiation. The notes go on further:
''The effect of this clause, and provisions in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, is to implement the recommendation by the Electoral Commission that the existing provisions relating to personation should be extended to give the police the power of arrest at any location, not just at polling stations.''
However, it does not do that; the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005—I served on the Standing Committee for that Bill, and participated in all it stages—gives the powers of arrest to a constable for any offence under any circumstances, so the police have the power of arrest for this offence wherever it occurs. The clause cannot possibly extend the police's power of arrest because even a cursory reading of the clause suggests that it is a restriction of the powers of arrest of persons other than constables. I am completely at a loss as to what the explanatory notes are explaining; I do not understand how the power of a constable is extended, because that is not the case.
I can see that the clause confirms the power of a constable, which the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 already does, to make an arrest in a polling station. I can see that it prevents a citizen's arrest happening within a polling station, but it says that it could happen at any other place; so a concerned citizen can make an arrest when the person has left the polling station if they suspect them of having committed an offence but cannot do so while they are in the polling station. That makes no sense at all.
There must be some answer to that conundrum that I cannot fathom at the moment. I hope that the Minister will be able to help me; it may simply be that the explanatory notes bear scant resemblance to the clause. That is the easiest consequence to understand in some ways, but if it is not that, can the Minister please explain to me what the clause does and how it accomplishes what the explanatory notes suggest that it does?