Clause 19 - Offence
London Olympics Bill
12:00 pm
Maria Miller (Basingstoke, Conservative)
The Opposition share the concerns of the hon. Member for Bath about clause 19. While it is true that there are other areas of law when there is an automatic presumption of guilt, most notably in money laundering regulations, it is entirely disproportionate that there should be a presumption of guilt about people who find themselves, perhaps even inadvertently, in breach of clause 17. Given our earlier discussions and the broadness and vagueness of some of the notions that were talked about, several people could fall into that category.
In addition to the worries that were expressed by the hon. Gentleman about clause 19(2), we believe that it would not be good to normalise further the use of presumption of guilt under English common law. In our view, the inclusion of presumption of guilt in legislation should be used as infrequently as possible. I am interested to hear from the Minister why it is considered necessary to reverse the burden of proof in this instance.
I noticed in the handout that the Minister kindly gave to Committee members this morning that the IOC technical manual shows that it may cover the issue, although not in a great amount of detail. I urge the Minister to realise that the IOC is used to working with many different countries with strong principles regarding the issue, which are enshrined in their legislation. Perhaps we should not be too ready to give way on this issue, which is important and a matter of principle for us.