Serious Crime Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 68: 68: Clause 9 , page 7, line 5, leave out ““a significant”” and insert ““an”” The noble Lord said: I will speak also to Amendments Nos. 69, 70, 72, 77 and 78. The amendments all remove ““a significant”” or ““significantly”” as appropriate, and probe exactly what ““significant”” means. When third parties are given sufficient rights of representation as to the impact of making an SCPO, or what we have decided might be called a CODPO, on a person, it is important to know how ““significant”” bites. Clause 9 provides something of a safeguard for third parties, where the making, variation or discharge of an order, or not making any changes, would be likely to have a significant adverse effect on them. The court is given the power to allow third parties to make representations about how the order would affect them, so that they may be taken into account if and when the court makes, varies or discharges any order. The test of whether a third party may make representations is set high. The Bill states that the impact on them must be ““a significant adverse effect””. We would like to know how the Government intend ““significant”” to be interpreted. Do people have to be facing bankruptcy, as one example, as a result of the order? What level of financial loss, immediate or long term, does there need to be? Does their personal liberty have to be infringed so severely that they cannot lead their usual personal family life? What examples can the Minister give of the Government’s thinking on this that determined the drafting of the clause? The route to the drafting in the Bill seems to be littered with half considered and rejected alternative proposals. The consultation paper, New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime, which the noble Baroness will remember, accepted that it would be important that the courts are made aware of the possible impact of orders on the rights of third parties. The Government said that they were considering whether that would require including something in the Bill requiring the court to take due account of the rights of third parties as in United States legislation; the civil RICO—Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. They also said that they were considering whether this was already implicit in the regime imposed by the Human Rights Act. The Government then proposed that a simpler alternative might be for the legislation or the rules of court to state explicitly that the authority applying for the order should draw to the court’s attention relevant facts about the possible interests of third parties. The results of the consultation showed that the vast majority of respondents felt that it was vital to ensure that the rights and interests of third parties were properly protected in considering the granting of an order. The understandable concern expressed by respondents was that if this did not happen, an entirely innocent third party could be unreasonably affected by the imposition of an order on an individual or an organisation. The Government’s stated solution was to amend the Civil Procedure Rules to provide that prosecutors, when applying for a prevention order, must make an assessment of the proposed order’s potential impact on third parties and draw this to the court’s attention. What has happened to that proposal? It would have meant that the court would be bound to consider all the facts with regard to the application and to ensure that the terms of the order were such that no third party could be unreasonably affected by that order. Instead, a statutory requirement is proposed that appears to narrow the circumstances in which a court can take into account whether a third party is adversely affected by the making of the SCPO. What is the Government’s justification for that? How will the proposal ensure that no third party is unreasonably affected by the imposition of an SCPO? I beg to move.