Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 20 January 2011.

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Shami Chakrabarti: Absolutely, the fear of arrest is not a good thing for innocent people to be worried about. Whether they are young ethnic minority men in Hackney or visiting foreign dignitaries, I would not want anybody to be subject to inappropriate arrest. You are right that I should look at my own argument and at people’s perceptions as well as looking at the reality.

Evidence needs to be put on the table, though. Sometimes you have to reassure people and not always with legislation. On the issue of whether the state should be bringing serious prosecutions, of course it should. You are right that many of these crimes ought to be prosecuted by states, if not by international organisations, but the world is a big place as well as a small one. All sorts of potential crimes against humanity may have been perpetrated across the world, but they will not necessarily be a prime preoccupation of the assistant commissioner here, or others, at a particular time. Sometimes it might be a human rights organisation, or a group of private individuals, that is aware of the particular concern, at least in a moment speedy enough to apply to the court for a warrant. Realistically, down the track the state will engage and make a decision about whether to take over that prosecution—to discontinue it or to pursue it. If you will forgive me for saying it, you are not right to say that the courts are not involved.