Schedule 1
Serious Crime Bill [Lords]
5:30 pm
Nick Herbert (Shadow Minister (Police Reform), Home Affairs; Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
I rise, in the spirit of collegiate support, to support my right hon. and learned Friend in relation to amendment No. 95, in which he seeks to remove the provision in clause 5(4) that enables the Secretary of State by order to amend schedule 1, either by taking offences away or, more seriously, by adding them.
I signalled on Second Reading that the official Opposition were unhappy with the provision. It seems wrong in principle, even if the statutory instrumentis subject to the affirmative procedure, that the Government should take the power to add to the list of offences that can be used to make serious crime prevention orders. We have expressed concerns about that.
If it is necessary to add offences to the legislation in the future, it should be done by primary legislation. After all, plenty of Home Office Bills are likely to come forward as vehicles for such amendments. Judging by the number of Home Office Bills we have had so far, there will be no shortage of legislative opportunities. The nature and scope of the orders mean that, for consistency’s sake, given our concerns about the operation of the powers, we cannot support granting an open-ended power to the Government of the day to add to the list of offences.
As to the wider schedule, I am inclined to agree with my right hon. and learned Friend. After all, we objected to clauses 1 and 2 in the first place because the Government have failed to meet our concerns about the operation of the orders.
An issue for us is that if the schedule of specific offences were to disappear, it would leave in the Bill only the power for courts to determine whether offences were sufficiently serious. Nevertheless, I am content to oppose the schedule on the basis that we oppose that power as well. Therefore, for consistency’s sake, in spite of the addition of the offence of armed robbery that was proposed in the other place, we shall oppose the schedule.