Extradition Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:00 pm on 16 January 2003.
Michael Wills
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) (Criminal Justice System IT)
3:00,
16 January 2003
I beg to move Amendment No. 174, in
Clause 170, page 90, line 31, at end insert—
'(7A) Subsection (2) applies to Scotland with the substitution of ''procurator fiscal'' for ''constable''.'.
This is a technical amendment. The Bill reflects the procedure in England and Wales that enables a police constable to hand over certain items, but it does not reflect the practice in Scotland, where procurators fiscal are responsible for such matters. The amendment remedies that anomaly.
Mr Nick Hawkins
Conservative, Surrey Heath
We have no difficulty with the Amendment, which seems perfectly sensible. The Law Society of Scotland raised one or two related issues, which I touched on in previous debates, and we shall come later to another of its suggestions. However, we certainly want the legislation to work effectively north of the border, and I have no doubt that with this amendment it will do so, so we have nothing to say in Opposition to the amendment.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 170, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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