New Clause 5
Serious Crime Bill
11:45 am
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
May I thank the hon. Member for Hornchurch and his colleagues for tabling this new clause because it gives me the opportunity to reiterate the commitment that was made by Lord Bassam in another place? In order for truly effective use of these orders, there will need to be a central record of appropriate information in relation to their use, especially for co-ordination between different branches of law enforcement and the different applicant authorities. In order for the record to be an effective tool, there will need to be extensive consultation with stakeholders to make sure that their needs are taken into account. We will also need to consult with the judiciary and we would want to ensure that any recording of the details of the operation of these orders would be entirely in accordance with data protection principles.
It would be inappropriate to include such a general provision in the Bill without having consulted those various bodies. If we are to come back to this on Report after the summer recess I hope to have completed this process of consideration and to be able to inform the House of how this will be done. In the light of the commitment to a record being kept that was made in another place and now in this House, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will understand why I will resist the amendment and why I will ask him to consider its withdrawal.