Clause 31
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
8:00 pm
Maria Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)
We believe that the time limit reflects the fact that investigation by the commissioner, which is an administrative process rather than a judicial one, is most useful when engaged with matters that are reasonably fresh and still capable of worthwhile resolution. We consider that, in the vast majority of cases, the deadlines set out in clause 31 will give complainants sufficient time to raise grievances with the commissioner.
In setting a time limit, we have followed two main principles: first, that the commissioner will not act on complaints beyond a year; and, secondly, that the person must have given the prison or the body complained against a reasonable opportunity to deal with the substance of the complaint, which relates to the point that the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome made. I do not think that we define in part 4 or elsewhere in the Bill what that period should be; it would depend on the facts of each individual case. There will be some minor complaints to which it would be reasonable for the controlling authority to respond quickly and there will more complex complaints that take longer to deal with. “Reasonable” is one of those words that ought to be clear, one hopes, from the context of the complaint—its seriousness, when it was made and so on. That is subject to common sense.