Clause 46
Counter-Terrorism Bill
11:45 am
David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I have one small anxiety. I hope that the people to whom the notification orders apply are made aware, while in custody, of all the details about what they are required to do. I am thinking particularly about the fact that they are required to provide notification that they have been released from custody. Many people might assume that the criminal justice system would be aware that a person had been released from custody, although that is an unsafe assumption in the current circumstances. Nevertheless, a reasonable person might assume that the criminal justice system was aware that a court had released somebody from custody or from detention in a hospital. Unless that is spelled out to the person, I fear that they might inadvertently be in breach of the notification procedures even while they were attempting to do everything required of them, having made the sensible assumption that once a court says “you are now free to go”, the fact is logged somewhere in the system.