Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, to refresh our memories briefly, the new investigation anonymity orders are designed to assist in the fight against gang-related gun and knife crime. I wrote to the Opposition Front Bench in the summer describing the orders in detail. People who come forward to help the police in criminal investigations are protected from having their identities exposed only by the limited constraints to which the police and other investigators are subject at present, such as data protection legislation and common law confidentiality rules. The new orders will make it a criminal offence to divulge the identity of the informant. In the Bill, we have limited the orders to gang-related gun and knife homicides, where the greatest concern lies, but the Bill contains an enabling power that would permit the scheme to be applied to other offences if that were appropriate. Amendment 76 would remove the order-making powers from Clause 65 and thus prevent further offences being added to the investigation anonymity order scheme other than by primary legislation. In principle, any criminal investigation can give rise to witness intimidation. If the orders work well in practice, it would be entirely proper to use secondary legislation to add other offences to the scheme, rather than having to enact new primary legislation. I remind the House that the affirmative resolution procedure applies to this order-making power and that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee considered that this provided an appropriate level of parliamentary scrutiny. Any future extension of the scope of the scheme would be considered on a case-by-case basis. I can assure noble Lords that we have no plans to add swathes of new offences to the scheme. Moreover, any proposals to extend the list of offences would be subject to consultation. Amendments 76A to 76D and 76F to 76M would delete the entire investigation anonymity order scheme. It will come as no surprise to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, that I cannot accept the amendments. I am aware that doubts have been raised in some quarters as to the likely efficacy of the investigation anonymity order scheme, but gang-related gun and knife crime continues to be a pressing problem. It would be a dereliction of duty on the Government’s part if we were to fail to pursue every possible way of combating that menace. My response to those amendments brings me neatly to Amendment 76CA. I commented in Committee that we had some sympathy with the amendment. I noted that it was uncertain exactly how the orders would operate in practice and that their operation should be closely monitored. However, as we were proposing to carry out a review of the provisions anyway, I said that the amendment was unnecessary. Given the continuing doubts which have been expressed as to the overall nature and scope of the scheme, I am now prepared to accept Amendment 76CA in principle. As ever, we think the drafting of the amendment can be improved upon. Accordingly, if the noble Lord, Lord Henley, would agree to withdraw it, I am happy to undertake to bring forward a suitable alternative at Third Reading which will have the same effect. Moving now to Amendment 76E, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, for clarifying the purpose of the amendment. This amendment would allow an investigation anonymity order to be made only where the police can satisfy a magistrate or district judge that the potential informant would be unwilling or unable to give information without one. That would make it more difficult to make an order than is envisaged in the Bill, which requires that the potential informant be more likely than not to provide information. We do not wish to make the requirements for obtaining an investigation anonymity order unduly onerous. At the very early stage of an investigation, the police may have only very limited information, but to take the investigation forward it may be vital for them to obtain an order. Amendment 76E would require the police to satisfy the court that the informant was flatly unwilling or unable to assist without an order in place. In our view, this unduly restricts the range of cases in which the order may be made. It turns the order from an encouragement mechanism into a prerequisite for the provision of information. That cannot be right. Having secured one of his two amendments, I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Henley, is satisfied and that he will agree to withdraw Amendment 76. I hope also that the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, will be sufficiently reassured. As well as accepting in principle Amendment 76CA, I can assure the noble Lord, Lord Henley, that the Government will not bring forward an order under subsection (4) of Clause 65 until the Justice Secretary has reported to Parliament on the operation of investigation anonymity orders. I hope that that will provide further assurance that we are not bringing forward an unnecessary swathe of offences.