Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 153A: 153A: Clause 149, page 107, line 13, at beginning insert ““Subject to subsection (4A) below,”” The noble Lord said: Amendments Nos. 153A and 153B are paving amendments for Amendment No. 153C, which is included in this group. In Clause 149, a qualifying offender is identified as, "““a person within subsection (2) or (4)””." Subsection (2) deals with a person who, "““has been convicted of a specified offence and given a custodial sentence of at least 12 months””," or who has been found to be insane or under a disability and could not be convicted of the offence. Subsection (4) deals with a conviction in a country outside England and Wales and again relates to a conviction for a period of imprisonment of at least 12 months. The purpose of the amendments is to put a limit on that. For example, a person who had been in prison for a period and released and for whom the period of licence, if any, had come to an end, should not, at a distance of 11, 12 or 15 years thereafter, be made the subject of a violent offender order. There should be a 10-year limitation from the date of completion of a sentence under subsection (2); a 10-year limitation from discharge from a hospital order or a supervision order under subsection (3); and a 10-year limitation from the completion of a sentence in a country outside England and Wales under subsection (4). The purpose of the amendments is to insert as subsection (4A) the provision that your Lordships can see in the amendment as drafted: "““A person is not within subsection (2) or (4) if … the custodial sentence referred to in subsection (2)(a) or (4)(a) was completed more than ten years prior to the date of application for a violent offender order; or … the relevant order in subsection (3)(a) or (b) was rescinded or otherwise terminated more than ten years prior to the date of application””." We think it essential that there be some limitation. If 10 years have gone by since the date of release without any need for a violent offender order to be applied for, we respectfully suggest that it is too late, unjust and unfair to make a violent offender order at a much later date. I beg to move.