Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:23 pm on 3 March 2003.

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Photo of Lord Filkin Lord Filkin Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 5:23, 3 March 2003

My Lords, I hope, as I am sure will be the case, that the House recognises that this is an example of where we have listened to comments made by Opposition Members in Committee. We are pleased to bring forward these technical amendments, clarifying and simplifying the number of references to the Bill's application in Scotland. The last amendment in the grouping, Amendment No. 92, also defines an officer in the United Kingdom.

Amendments Nos. 72 and 91 reflect the need for consistency in the Bill when directly referring to a particular Act—in this case, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000. Amendment No. 92 simply defines "UK officer" as now referred to in the revised Section 76A(1)(c) in the redrafted Bill prepared for Report. It makes it clear that the police, Customs, NCIS or NCS will be taking over this sort of surveillance. In addition, it takes account of the Committee's view that the formulation previously proposed was insufficiently transparent, if I may use that phrase. The amendment refers to the Scottish Crime Squad. Section 9 of RIPA (Scotland) enables the Scottish Crime Squad and any successor to conduct authorised surveillance.

The new drafting will cover the operational and intelligence groups—the OIG—of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, which have taken over the functions of the Scottish Crime Squad. The wording also ensures that Section 76A would cover any other joint operation that might be established under any future collaborative agreements between Scottish police forces and would perform the same function as the OIG.

The OIG is a joint operation established by agreement between the chief constables of the Scottish police forces under Section 12 of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967. It took over the work of the Scottish Crime Squad and undertakes similar activities to those of the National Crime Squad.

Section 9 of RIPA (Scotland) enables the Scottish Crime Squad and any other joint operation established under Section 12 of the 1967 Act which fulfils similar purposes to conduct authorised surveillance. Accordingly, as the OIG performs similar purposes to the SCS, it, too, is authorised under RIPA (Scotland) to carry out surveillance. If the OIG's surveillance function were to be replaced by another joint operation established under the 1967 Act, this, too, would be able to conduct authorised surveillance under RIPA (Scotland) because of Section 9.

Paragraph (c) of the last amendment is reworded to remove the previous confusion and to ensure that Section 76A will apply where the OIG or any successor cannot physically take over surveillance when the foreign officers arrive.

Similar provision need not be made for NCIS or NCS because they are statutory creations. If they were to be reformulated or replaced, primary legislation would be needed, which could include a consequential amendment to change the references to them here. I beg to move.