Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I support the points made by my noble friend, Baroness Anelay, particularly in the context of trafficking and lorry drivers. The Minister will be aware of the case of Roth v the Home Office in which the 2001 Act crashed. The provisions for the confiscation of lorries, for demand for immediate payment of £2,000, and for a complete change in the rules of criminal procedure—denying the normal rules of procedure in circumstances which plainly involved a criminal penalty—meant that the Act was struck down. This was all in relation to the problem of illegal immigrants and the use and abuse of lorries coming into this country. The Government tried to control that and it was right to try, but it was not done in the right way. It was not proportionate or compliant with the Strasbourg court. We wish the Bill to succeed in the sense that we all wish to combat effectively this type of serious crime. We are testing it because we do not want to make those same serious mistakes again. Against this background, one of the problems in 2001-03 was that at Sangatte—the refugee camp near Calais and the entrance to the tunnel, and the place at which lorries are marshalled before driving onto cross-Channel ferries—there was absolutely no provision for the kind of electronic surveillance, mechanical or physical, which would have made a difference. I suspect that the Home Office is more up to speed on that now. I hope the noble Baroness will confirm that we have the kind of mechanical or technical facility which will show whether lorries driving onto vessels or into the Chunnel are carrying illegal immigrants. A great deal can be done technically; we know that because the United States has been down that route and is doing it successfully on the borders with Mexico. Before we decide to take procedural action, or action to change our criminal law and our normal rights and liberties, will the noble Baroness confirm that we are doing the right kind of things at Calais, Felixstowe, Newcastle and all the other places where we suspect, or know, that illegal immigrants are coming in?