Clause 20
Serious Crime Bill [Lords]
12:15 pm
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
It is fair to say that 30 was an approximate figure for the number of orders that we thought might be used by the courts in any one year. Of that figure, I do not expect that many would be used on the back of a conditional discharge.
However, one could foresee a situation in which it might be useful for the courts to have the power to impose a serious crime prevention order, should they believe that to be appropriate in the circumstances. For example, suppose someone who is a serious criminal has been convicted of a serious offence, however defined—in schedule 1 or at the court’s discretion—but is too ill or old to go to prison. In those circumstances, people are sometimes given conditional discharges, even though they have committed serious offences.
In that situation, it might be that a serious crime prevention order could be given to the individual concerned. The person could communicate, so one could make them the subject of a serious crime prevention order by saying that there will be restrictions on their communication. That is one example of a situation in which such an order might be appropriate. There might well be others. A conditional discharge is sometimes given to somebody who is found guilty of a serious offence. In those circumstances, the court ought to have the ability to use a serious crime prevention order if it thinks it appropriate.