Clause 14
Serious Crime Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
Mr. Bercow, in the light of your comments, I wish also to welcome a few members to the Committee and make one or two other comments. I should be grateful if you would allow me to indulge you and the Committee. I congratulate those members of the Committee who have now moved on—[ Laughter.] I hasten to add that they have moved on in a positive sense. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Sutcliffe) now has the post of the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; and I am delighted for my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) and the new Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Wright). The Committee’s debates have been of a good-hearted nature, but they have been challenging and have given the Bill proper scrutiny. In that spirit, I ask the hon. Member for Hornchurch to pass on my congratulations and best wishes to the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert), who has been promoted.
I welcome my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Garston. I also wish to mention the hon. Member for Reigate and the Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth, who are staying put. If it is not too self-indulgent, may I congratulate myself on staying put?—[Interruption.] It is very self-indulgent. I also welcome my hon. Friends the Members for Stourbridge and for Vale of Clwyd and, lastly, the hon. Member for Hornchurch to the Committee. I wish him well in navigating his way through the Bill.
I am also pleased to see that you are still chairing the Committee, Mr. Bercow, with Mr. Benton.
I start by saying that the measures in clause 14 have been discussed with the British Bankers Association. It has commented on the clause, and the Government have taken account of what it has said; it is perfectly happy with the clause. I hope that that offers the hon. Member for Hornchurch reassurance on that question.
The clause provides that a person cannot be required to produce excluded material under a serious crime prevention order; and that a person cannot be required to provide information in relation to which
“he owes an obligation of confidence by virtue of carrying on a banking business unless”
one of two conditions is met. The first condition is
“that the person to whom the obligation of confidence is owed consents to the disclosure”,
as the hon. Gentleman pointed out. The second condition is that the order requires the disclosure of specific information, or disclosure of a particular kind of information and that the confidential information is of that type.
That is an important safeguard. A serious crime prevention order should not be capable of requiring the disclosure of excluded material. In addition, an order should not be able to require the disclosure of information
“in respect of which...an obligation of confidence”
is owed
“by virtue of carrying on a banking business”
unless a court has given permission for or has specifically considered its disclosure and concluded that disclosure is appropriate.
The Government have said throughout the passage of the Bill that it is important to recognise that the court must always act fairly and proportionately, and it will have to do so on the disclosure of information under the clause.