Lord Kingsland: As the noble Baroness referred to my amendment in this group, I feel compelled to say something about it. She was quite right to describe my amendment as one that requires information from the defendant to be given to the court alone and not to the prosecutor. She went on to say that that would be a rather overinhibiting requirement, because the court would not be in a position to make an...
Lord Kingsland: I apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, for not making a more specific reference to his amendment. The proposal is extremely interesting. One might say that my amendment and that of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, could be described as having something of an inquisitorial nature. The amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, sticks more traditionally to...
Lord Kingsland: I also support my noble and learned friend's amendment. There are many statutory rules, many texts containing guidance and many conventions that have grown up to support the common law rules as they were at the time of Davis. What is to be the fate of those now? Are they still to remain, or are they part of the common law rules that are, to quote Clause 1(1), to be "abolished"? In my...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, I do not intend to oppose the Committee stage of the Bill, or to object to its remaining stages being taken today. I have intervened at this juncture because a significant and lengthy amendment was tabled last night by the Government. No warning was forthcoming, and the amendment was not seen until it appeared in the Printed Paper Office this morning. I am aware that this is...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, I thank the right honourable gentleman the Secretary of State for Justice and his ministerial team for involving the Opposition during the preparation of the Bill. I believe the same is true of the Liberal Democrats. In particular, we were given the opportunity to comment on the legislation in draft and, to the extent that our advice was taken, we are as implicated in the Bill as...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, I am most grateful, as I always am, for the noble Lord's intervention. I was not aware of his conversation with the Director of Public Prosecutions. For what it is worth, my view is that gravity ought to be included in the Bill. We will have an opportunity to return to the matter in Committee. The third ingredient of the New Zealand Act that is not in the Bill is the ability to...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, in this debate the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, calls attention to the case for a royal commission on the state of prisons. By a unique blend of complete mastery of his brief, trenchant parliamentary interventions and a relentless determination to persuade the Government of the error of their ways, the noble Lord has succeeded in driving the disgraceful state of our prisons way up...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, first, I thank the Government for involving the Opposition in discussions on the intended legislation. We recognise that Ministers are confronting a particularly testing problem, and we wish to be as constructive and helpful as possible. The Government propose to introduce new measures in the form of emergency legislation to be scrutinised for no more than a day or two in each House...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, I very much appreciate the observation of my noble friend Lord Lucas, of Crudwell and Dingwall, that he is waiting keenly to hear what I have to say to your Lordships' House this afternoon. However, the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, and my noble friend have covered this topic so admirably and thoroughly that they have left me very little to add. The Opposition are entirely content with...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. These are not just my own views, but also those of the committee. The particular value of setting out in detail in primary legislation the proper balance between the general principle of privacy and those public interest factors which might in one way or another dilute it is that the individuals in each department would be subject to...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, first, I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, who, in addition to introducing this debate, played an important part in defining the offences of deliberate or reckless mishandling of personal data in the late, and entirely unlamented, Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. It has to be accepted that the Government have an appalling record of negligence in the handling of...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, I speak to Amendment No. 28, which is not germane to what the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen, has been saying; nevertheless, I must deal with it in this way. I can deal with it telegraphically, largely from a quotation from the Constitution Committee report of 28 March. First, however, as to Amendment No. 27, on 29 April—the second Committee day of the Bill—we tabled an...
Lord Kingsland: My Lords, like so many other noble Lords who have taken part in this debate, I, too, pay tribute to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer of Sandwell. Many people, both in and out of public life, consistently and rightly express their repugnance at torture and all acts associated with it. However, what distinguishes the noble and learned Lord, as the noble Lord, Lord Judd, said so...
Lord Kingsland: That is most interesting to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. My understanding is that it is not possible under the European arrest warrant, once all the formal stipulations are complied with under the provisions that set it up, to raise convention rights. That is my understanding. The issue for us is that these measures will change the character of the European Union in an undesirable...
Lord Kingsland: I should like to thank my noble friend Lord Blackwell, the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, and, of course, the noble Baroness, for their substantial contributions to this important debate. I am not convinced—even after listening to the noble Baroness—that the changes in this treaty are necessary. The objects that the noble Baroness has said that those changes are intended to achieve can be...
Lord Kingsland: I am not suggesting that it is going to be imposed on this country, because we have the benefit of the opt-out.
Lord Kingsland: I find that an uncharacteristically astonishing observation from the noble Lord, Lord Thomas. I have tried to make it clear in my winding-up speech that my concern was not primarily our opt-out but what these measures would do to the character of the European Union in general. We want the European Union to be a success. These measures will contribute substantially to the European Union not...
Lord Kingsland: The mechanisms are set out in Article 83. They are there for the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, to read in relation to evidence, the rights of victims and the individual liberties of the citizen. All these aspects will now be legislated on by the European Union under the first pillar system. That will dramatically change the justice system in the European Union member states. That is absolutely...
Lord Kingsland: It is common knowledge that we have hesitations about both organisations. If they were established by voluntary agreement or intergovernmental agreement, it would be a different matter. But we certainly have deep antipathy to the proposals that are made about them in the Lisbon treaty. As far as the arrest warrant is concerned, we opposed many aspects of it, principally because it was not...
Lord Kingsland: moved Amendment No. 53: Clause 2, page 1, line 12, after "excluding" insert— "(i) Article 2, paragraph 66, replacement Article 65 TEC (TFEU), paragraphs 1 and 2, relating to judicial cooperation in civil matters; and(ii) "