Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, for explaining to me in more detail what exactly he was after with the amendment. As he said, we debated this matter in Committee last month. I apologised then for the delay in bringing the order into effect—he was absolutely right that there had been delays. I also explained the background and gave an assurance that appropriate action was now being taken. I can assure the noble Lord that Home Office officials are working with the Attorney-General’s office, the prosecution agencies, Her Majesty’s Courts Service and the National Policing Improvement Agency on the practical aspects of giving powers to magistrates’ courts to make confiscation orders by way of an order under Section 97 of the 2005 Act. Work is progressing on the drafting of the order as well. It is our very firm aim to lay an order under Section 97, certainly within the 12-month period envisaged by the amendment and, if possible, even sooner than that. I take his point that this has not been done as swiftly as it should have been done—but we are now doing that. With Amendment 79B, the noble Lord identifies an important point. It is one thing for a court to make a confiscation order, but we need to make sure that the order is enforced and the payment collected. That said, I hope that I can persuade the noble Lord that the amendment is unnecessary. Under Section 35 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, a confiscation order is treated as a fine and is enforced by the use of the magistrates’ court’s fine enforcement powers. Section 1(3)(b) of the Attachment of Earnings Act 1971 already provides for an attachment of earnings order to be made to secure the payment of a fine. By extension, therefore, attachment of earnings orders can be used, and are already used, to enforce the payment of a confiscation order. I hope that that covers the noble Lord’s point on the attack on the earnings aspect. With that explanation, I ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.