Part of Proceeds of Crime Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:15 pm on 6 December 2001.
I am grateful to the Minister for his explanation. This is another area where the Bill's Scottish and English components differed. On part 2, we discussed extending legal aid and whether someone should be allowed to draw down for legal aid the sums under restraint. That was not allowed and the Minister will remember that I argued that it should be; in the Scottish system, precisely what I argued for was allowed but is now being removed. I think that I have understood correctly that that is what he is saying. The regime was quite different, yet when the Bill was presented it was suggested that the Scottish system was perfectly viable, or the Government would not have gone along with it.