Clause 26
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
5:15 pm
Maria Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)
It is quite a relief after this length of time finally to be able to welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Cook. You have been here for some time and I feel that I have neglected the courtesies, as it were. It is only because I have not managed to get to my feet yet. Now that I am on my feet, it might be some time before my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice and my hon. Friend the Home Office Minister get to do their bit. None the less, the theatrical profession always thinks that delayed entrances have something to be said for them. We will just have to see whether the Committee agrees with that by the time we get to the end of this group of amendments. At least I hope that the Committee will be glad that we have managed to move up a group. I hope that the hon. and learned Member for Harborough is happy to acknowledge that we are trying to be as flexible as possible even if all of our notes are not always available.
In respect of these amendments, the Committee will recall the extensive debate about quashing convictions at the beginning of the Public Bill procedure. Indeed an extensive amount of consultation and thought went into those areas long before either I or my right hon. Friend came into the Department. None the less, with Government amendment No. 207, which I am pleased to be able to move, we are now able to come to the Government’s considered view of how we ought to go forward. I look forward to debating with members of the Committee and others to see whether they think that we have got it right and also to dealing with the other amendments that have been tabled to deal with these issues.
The policy that clause 26 seeks to reflect is that it is not right that the Court of Appeal should be obliged to quash convictions as unsafe because of procedural irregularities when there is no doubt that the appellant was guilty of the offence. That is the mischief that we are trying to deal with in respect of these points. Our objective is to ensure that the appellant’s right to due process of law does not automatically override the need to ensure that appellants who are plainly guilty remain convicted. As the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor said on Second Reading, such a change requires only a small adjustment to the law. We are not seeking to imply any criticism of the Court of Appeal. His statement on Second Reading reflected a change of view by the Government in that we agree on reflection that the convention exception, which is currently in new subsection (1B) as it stands, does not go far enough in providing that extra protection. We need to ensure that new subsection (1A) does not prevent the court from allowing an appeal even when the appellant’s guilt is not in doubt and when there has been serious misconduct by the investigating or prosecuting authorities. It is with that aim in mind that we have tabled Government amendment No. 207.
Government amendment No. 207 amends new subsections (1A) and (1B). The revised version of new subsection (1B) ensures that the Court of Appeal retains a discretion to allow an appeal if it thinks that it would seriously undermine the proper administration of justice to allow the conviction to stand. That is a change from the current wording that the Committee members will see in the Bill as published.
Amendment No. 207 provides for a wider exception than the published new subsection (1B) in the Bill, so it impinges more upon the operation of new subsection (1A). We believe, however, that that will cover all the circumstances that will be caught by the existing convention exception as it is set out in new subsection (1B) in the Bill, but it will go further, allowing convictions to be quashed when there has been serious misconduct by the investigating or prosecuting authorities, and we are back to the Mullen-type cases that we had a debate about earlier. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome sounds like an old record because I have heard him say it before.