Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 122A: 122A: After Clause 112, insert the following new Clause— ““Withdrawal of warrants After section 11 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 (c. 43) insert— ““11A Non-appearance of accused: withdrawal of warrants (1) Where a magistrates’ court has proceeded in the absence of the accused and the court has imposed a fine following conviction, any warrant to enforce the fine or other financial penalty may be suspended or withdrawn and the matter returned to the court which convicted the offender. (2) The Secretary of State shall make regulations enabling— (a) a court, (b) Her Majesty’s Court service, or (c) any person employed to enforce a warrant against a convicted person, to suspend or withdraw the warrant and return the matter to the court which convicted the offender. (3) Regulations made under subsection (2) shall specify the steps to be taken in a case where following conviction it is discovered that the offender is a vulnerable person. (4) In subsection (3), ““vulnerable person”” means a person who could not reasonably be expected to act on his own behalf including, but not limited, to— (a) children under 18 years of age; (b) the elderly; (c) persons with a disability; (d) the seriously ill; (e) the recently bereaved; (f) single parents; (g) pregnant women; (h) unemployed persons; (i) persons who have obvious difficulty in understanding, speaking or reading English.”””” The noble Lord said: The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, is not in his place today and he has asked me, as my name is attached to Amendment No. 122A, to explain to your Lordships what it is about. The amendment deals with the position in which a warrant to enforce a fine imposed by a magistrates’ court has been issued. It proposes that the magistrates’ court should have the power to withdraw or suspend that warrant. Proposed subsection (2) suggests that: "““The Secretary of State shall make regulations””," giving a court or the Courts Service, which would have the responsibility of enforcing the warrant, or indeed the bailiff who is seeking to enforce the warrant, the power, "““to suspend or withdraw the warrant and return the matter to the court””." The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, is particularly concerned—as is the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, on whose behalf Reverend Paul Nicholson speaks with such fervour on this subject—about a vulnerable person, as referred to in proposed subsections (3) and (4). Amendments Nos. 137A and 142A, which are grouped with it, also deal—