Clause 86
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
6:30 pm
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
The test is whether, in the court’s view, an individual poses a serious risk to another person or to the public. The evidence to demonstrate that would have to be put before the court before an interim order could be made. The order is an emergency measure that would be available for the courts to impose temporarily while a full violent offender order was being applied for.
I respect the positions that have been set out by the hon. Members for Somerton and Frome and for Enfield, Southgate, but let me restate what I said about violent offender orders: there are clearly differences between us. That emerged in discussions about serious crime prevention orders during passage of the Serious Crime Act 2007, when there was disagreement about the standard of proof that should be applied. The Government considered that, as the orders should be civil orders, the relevant standard was the civil one, whereas the hon. Gentlemen thought that the standard should be the criminal test of reasonable doubt. The debate is similar this time.