Clause 8 - Interim orders
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
5:15 pm
Lynne Featherstone (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
Amendment No. 123 is very similar to the amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Woking. It is totally reasonable in certain circumstances to make an order without notice, but it is not reasonable to make that order without the person concerned being made aware of it. If the Government will not accept the amendment, it would be good if they would say that every possible means would be used to serve such a notice, because to advance an order without notice being served seems to be against the principles of natural justice.
Amendment No. 124 is very similar to amendment No. 24, tabled by the hon. Member for Woking. It too seeks to insert at the end of line 22 provisions relating to the seriousness of the conduct and the nature of the renewals to prevent abuse of an interim order. Without a higher threshold, there could be any number of renewals and any number of reasons for those renewals. One must be careful, because an interim order might be renewed so many times that it would rob the final significance of any court proceedings. I would welcome clarification from the Minister on what limit there might be on the number of times that an interim order could be renewed. I do not believe that difficulties of evidence can be used ad infinitum as a reason for continual renewal, which might simply be a reflection of poor performance. The individual should not suffer as a result of the poor performance of the authorities.