Clause 3
Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill
12:30 pm
Joan Ryan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Enfield North, Labour)
As this is the first time I rise in this Committee I welcome you, Mr. Bercow, to the role of overseeing our proceedings.
The provisions set out in section 43 will enable the criminal justice system to deal more effectively with what we might call white-collar crime and will enable the full criminality of cases to be exposed. They will therefore result in more efficient trials and relieve the excessive burden on jurors, who have to have their lives disrupted on end, as we have already discussed. These are, in the Government’s view, substantial benefits. I can therefore see no reason why they should not be realised in Northern Ireland as well as in England and Wales. That is the justification I give to right hon. and hon. Members of this Committee.
This is a simple issue. It is not about inflicting something on Northern Ireland; it is about extending a benefit to Northern Ireland, in the interests of justice. The hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey talked about normalisation in Northern Ireland, which is a process that hon. Members in all parts of the House welcome. Given that part 7 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 already applies to Northern Ireland, it would seem strange if these changes were not made in parallel. Part 7 applies to Northern Ireland because the 2003 Act extends there. That is normal procedure. I hear what the hon. Gentleman says about the prospect of changes to the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland and the Diplock courts, but that is a process of normalisation. Northern Ireland is moving from difficult times to better times, which hopefully will become even better. That process should not affect our desire to see serious and complex fraud detected and successfully prosecuted in Northern Ireland, as in England and Wales.
The clause ensures simply that the Bill will extend to Northern Ireland. It is not a matter of tagging it on, which is the expression that the hon. Gentleman used. Part 7 applies, so it is not an extraordinary measure that is tagged on. I recommend that the Committee support the clause and that the provision be applied to Northern Ireland. Serious and complex fraud cases currently have little chance of resulting in a conviction that reflects their full criminality. If we are to apply a measure in England and Wales that allows such cases to be prosecuted before only a judge, there is no justification for not applying it in Northern Ireland.