Clause 36
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
9:30 am
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, Justice; Harborough, Conservative)
Yes, even the ombudsman—or a coroner. Subsection (3) gives the commissioner permission also to
“make a report to any other person the Commissioner considers should receive a report.”
He will exercise that power
“to ensure that a report is made to at least one person who—
(a) is a personal representative of the deceased,
(b) was the partner, or other relative, of the deceased at the time of the death, or
(c) appears to the Commissioner to have been a friend of the deceased at the time of the death.”
That is all perfectly sensible and should be welcomed.
Subsection (5) clearly makes sense. It says that the commissioner need not report to such people
“if, after taking all reasonable steps to ascertain the identity of, and a means of contacting, a person falling within that subsection, the Commissioner is unable to comply with it.”
Sadly, there may be lots of prisoners who may have lost contact with their families, who cannot be discovered.
The clause deals with reports in writing. Subsection (7) gives the commissioner permission to
“(a) make different reports under this section to different persons;
(b) show any person a draft of the whole or any part of a report to be made under this section;
(c) publish the whole or any part of a report made under this section”.
I assume that when exercising his permission to show any person a draft of the whole or any part of the report, unless it is by publishing it—I use the word “publish” in the sense of making public, as opposed to making known to a third person—the commissioner will use his common sense and discretion and not give unduly wide publication to sensitive material. However, the Bill apparently gives him permission to publish it to whomever he wishes.