Clause 13 - Arrest for failing to comply with conditional caution
Police and Justice Bill
10:00 am
Michael Fabricant (Whip, Whips; Lichfield, Conservative)
I listened to the Minister speak on clause 12 and I understand and sympathise with her argument, because a considerable amount of poor behaviour, which needs to be controlled, goes on. I can imagine that clause 13(6) might apply in a case of someone with a can of paint for writing graffiti: the policeman holding that person might want to find out whether he was in breach of a conditional caution. However, I repeat the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs: surely there must be a time limit.
I am sure that in practice it will be very quick. I imagine that the police officer will find out the name of the chap, or sometimes the lady, concerned, he will use his mobile phone and get a response within two or three minutes, and go on from there. However, things can go wrong. Let us suppose that for some reason the records are not accessible—say, the computer is down. I am surprised that a time limit is not specified in the Bill. An hour or an hour and a half is quite a long time to detain someone in that way.
I seek reassurance from the Minister about how long detention would be in practice and what she would regard as an unreasonable time for which to detain a person in that way. If she makes that clear in Committee, we shall be reassured; we can be pretty clear in our minds that if the provisions are abused, lawyers will be able to quote from the Minister’s remarks in Committee Hansard and show that the spirit of the Act—if the Bill is enacted—has been broken.