Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:15 pm on 16 October 2007.
Jan Berry: Yes, we have proposed that particular change on several occasions. Unfortunately, it has not been taken up and included in a Bill. Sometimes I think that Bills going through do not have the time for additional clauses to be added. In some cases—particularly with football banning orders—we do not have the power to demand a person’s passport, even when we suspect that they might be wanted on warrant. It seems absolutely ludicrous that we have automatic licence plate recognition systems going in and out of all of our ports and airports these days and that we can tell whether the vehicle has a certificate of insurance or an MOT and who the keeper is, but we cannot ask for their passport. Well, we can ask, but we cannot demand, and I think that that is the important word.