Steven Baker: Thank you. Sorry, just to be clear, the fact of that investigation means that it is recorded that there was an allegation, not that there was a conviction or proof of wrongdoing?
Steven Baker: I think I see why you call it contentious.
Steven Baker: May I ask a tiny follow-up question? I am not a lawyer, but I am astonished that in the first case that you mentioned the man was not prosecuted. I think you mentioned assaults on children aged five to nine. It seems to me astonishing. If he is guilty of such a thing, I want that person put in prison. Equally, if a person is not guilty and he has had five allegations, do we just get to a...
Steven Baker: Is there a place in society for objection in principle to particular powers and procedures?
Steven Baker: So we seem to be having a conversation in a very utilitarian way about evidence, which is fantastic. It is the usual course of things. We also seem to agree that there is a place for objection in principle to the existence of certain powers.
Steven Baker: Or we could say that they may investigate these particular offences but we will protect them and restore confidence by requiring judicial approval, in principle.
Steven Baker: There seems to be a tension in the arguments that we have heard. CCTV is often not sufficiently effective to be useful, but we are worried about developments in technology such as face recognition, and about privacy. We hear philosophical objections on the basis of privacy and then we hear an argument that is empirical. What should be the fundamental object of any law relating to CCTV?
Steven Baker: Mr Sims, you mentioned speculative search. Forgive me, I do not really know what that means. Will you just sketch what it is, why it is helpful and how it is conducted?
Steven Baker: Will you explain why it is an important protection? To what extent does it produce convictions?
Steven Baker: Mr Kavanagh, what disadvantages, if any, would there be to proposed limitations of police powers to stop and search without having to demonstrate reasonable suspicion?
Steven Baker: On the appropriateness of powers and communities’ sense of how they are used, can you reflect on the interplay between equalities legislation and stop and search?
Steven Baker: Much as we have all had horrible problems with cowboy clampers, it seems ironic that a Bill on freedoms is not only banning something, but banning something that is the assertion of a property right. Is there a better way to moderate the behaviour of cowboy clampers without completely ruling out the activity?
Steven Baker: I am grateful to the Solicitor-General for responding to the debate and for being present at this late hour. My hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Miss Smith) and I would like to raise with the House and the Solicitor-General the experiences of Mr Andrew Breeze, a former NHS worker and founding clinician of an independent and innovative psychiatric hospital, Cawston Park. Mr...
Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what stocks of potassium iodide tablets his Department holds for the purposes of protection of the public in the event of a nuclear accident.
Steven Baker: First, I wish to associate myself with the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin). Too often, when addressing questions such as the one under discussion we get bogged down either in procedural matters or, matters that verge on the nationalistic, but this evening he has transcended that old territory and talked about what is good for the UK and Europe in...
Steven Baker: I see that my right hon. Friend remembers that, but I suspect he regrets giving me the reference.
Steven Baker: I am most grateful for that. We have talked about political economy, and great matters are at stake. It seems to me that there have always been two visions for Europe: a classical liberal vision and a vision of a so-called social Europe—an interventionist Europe. A classical liberal Europe would enable free movement of people, services and goods, all of which are to be applauded because we...
Steven Baker: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that, but the question is not whether we should help our friends in Europe, but how we should do so. Everybody here is interested in securing the maximum of human flourishing right across Europe—I do not doubt that—but the question is how to do that. Should it be done through the omnipotence of the state or through free trade, free markets and...
Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) cost to the public purse and (b) difference in cost compared to the original estimate is of the procurement of six commercial Point Class ships under the private finance initiative which are available for use as naval auxiliaries to the British armed forces.
Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make it his policy to explore the widest possible range of private sector defence alternatives for combating piracy on the high seas.