Clause 13 - Arrest for failing to comply with conditional caution
Police and Justice Bill
9:45 am
Nick Herbert (Shadow Minister (Police Reform), Home Affairs; Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 147, in clause 13, page 9, line 28, leave out subsection (6).
I tabled the amendment in response to a point made by the Magistrates Association about the operation of conditional cautions relating to the ability of the police to arrest someone without warrant and then to detain them while they are investigating a breach of the conditional caution, which is a power given in subsection (6). The Magistrates Association says that it gives the police greater power in dealing with a breach of the caution than the courts have in dealing with the breach of an order that they impose. It is questionable whether the police should be given such powers of detention and I wonder what safeguards there are in relation to the exercise of the power. For how long will the police be permitted to detain someone for a possible breach while they investigate the possibility—only the possibility—that a breach has occurred? That is an important question.
We must remember that the police will be able to exercise those powers of detention without any supervision by the courts. The courts will not have been involved at all. A conditional caution with a punitive element to it will have been imposed with the agreement of the offender. Once it is in operation, if the police believe that it has been breached, they can detain the offender for a period—I am waiting for the Minister to tell us how long that period might be—while they investigate it.
I should be grateful if the Minister told us what safeguards will operate in the exercise of the power in question. Is the Magistrates Association’s concern a proper one? Is it right that the police should have greater powers in relation to breaches in such cases than magistrates do in relation to breaches of court orders?