Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I refer to our earlier debate. The body would need to be a body that it would be appropriate to wind up, but otherwise it is a wide power to allow us to add bodies as necessary. As we have just discussed, those bodies have in the main been created by law. They are therefore able to be adequately identified. If and when those new bodies are created, they can be added. The noble Baroness will know that ““person”” can be a legal person as well as a natural person. Therefore, when one is seeking an inclusive term which can include all sorts of legal personalities, it is not unusual to use ““person””, which would include bodies corporate and other bodies which have been properly identified. The noble Baroness asked about charities; the issue depends very much on the nature of the charities. As she knows, some charities can be companies. We see this not as a wide power, but as an opportunity to include bodies and personalities, including corporate personalities, as they are created to make sure that they are consistent, as one would expect. We do not think that this power could be used inappropriately. That is why, because of the constraints that are put in—I am not supposed to use Latin any more, so I had better not finish that thought. We are looking to keep the group of entities similar, and they are identified in the way in which I have indicated. The negative resolution procedure is appropriate. That is why we were able to satisfy the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee that it was an appropriate procedure to adopt. I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness further if she thinks that might help her.