Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, the Government should not have been surprised by the Marper judgment. The system prevailing in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been subject to extraordinarily widespread and sustained criticism for a long time and does not accord with the civil liberties of individuals. I am grateful for the support of the right reverend Prelate, who said that the system undermined confidence and trust in government. It is good to hear that the Government are serious in their intention to bring forward legislation. However, I think that there are likely to be fundamental differences between what we on this side of the House consider constitutes an appropriate size and function of database and what the Minister is saying it should comprise. We believe that Scotland has a tried and tested functioning system. It is therefore not the case that there is no system working in this country which is available for early adoption. In fact, we would say that it is available for immediate adoption. That system has demonstrated its worth and has a higher rate of matching than the much bigger database in this country, which contains the names of people who should not be on it. There are real difficulties about continuing as we are. Every month, some 40,000 names are added. Approximately one in 10 people in this country now have their data on that database. That seems to be quite wrong. I accept what the Minister said about the seriousness of the Government’s intentions. We are grateful for the support of the Benches next door. However, we believe that this situation, which is a very unsatisfactory system which contravenes the long-standing view of the balance between security, crime and individual rights, should not persist, because we can replace it with something that is immeasurably better. Therefore, I should like to test the opinion of the House. Division on Amendment 97 Contents 45; Not-Contents 57. Amendment 97 disagreed. Moved by