Criminal Justice Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 4:15 pm on 30 June 2003.

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Photo of The Bishop of Worcester The Bishop of Worcester Bishop 4:15, 30 June 2003

I hope that this is an appropriate moment at which to say that the whole new clause, and in particular the issues around class C drugs, is for me the focus of a major concern that will appear at a number of points throughout the Bill. I support many of the points made by previous speakers.

The clause, and its earlier subsections, activates a kind of post-September 11th anxiety level in the whole of society and builds upon it. It takes us into an arena where the most creative ways of dealing with criminal offences and offending behaviour generally are submerged under a rhetoric of toughness. The Chamber needs to consider carefully whether that rhetoric of toughness actually contributes to a rise in the level of crime.

If we add to the number of arrestable offences, we add to the number of the people arrested. It may be possible to justify this arrest, that arrest or the next arrest. It may be possible to justify, as the Minister did, particular additions to the list of arrestable offences on the grounds of experience. But at what point will we consider the incremental effect on the culture of arrestability in our society?

If we increase the number of offences, we increase the number of people arrested—otherwise, there is no point in doing it. If we increase the number of people arrested, we statistically increase the number of people wrongly arrested. If we increase the number of people wrongly arrested, we increase the number of people who are inducted into a criminal culture. I do not know at which specific point and in response to which specific clause the Chamber will rebel against that incremental culture. However, I hope that at some point it does. If it does not, under the guise of a rhetoric driven by articles in the popular press and so forth, we shall believe that we are reducing criminal activity and actually be sowing the seeds by which it is increased.

It is no coincidence that the nub of the debate on the clause relates to cannabis. As other Members of the Committee have said, that is an area in which we can be sure that we shall increase the number of people whom we bring into touch with a criminal culture, and whom we label, arresting them sometimes correctly under the law and sometimes wrongfully. In that process, we shall not be reducing criminal activity—we shall be laying the grounds for its future increase. I beg noble Lords to consider very carefully in relation to each and every clause whether we should not have a presumption of not adding to the number of arrestable people and incarcerated people, all of which inhibits the possibility of rehabilitation and reducing criminal activity.