Powers of Entry etc. Bill [HL]

My Lords, this has been a very interesting debate, kicked off by the long-running attack of my noble friend Lord Selsdon. Listening to his opening speech, I recalled the final lines of a Noel Coward song: ""say ‘thank God’, we’ve got no cause to complain, Alice is at it again!"." Clearly, when I say that, I mean it in no disparaging way. He is absolutely right in pursuing a matter which concerns every man, woman and child in this country, as my noble friend Lord Marlesford almost said. Powers of entry have become so widespread and so draconian over this Government’s time in office that there has arisen a considerable amount of unease, to put it mildly, both in and outside Parliament. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, remarked on that. This unease was reflected in the debate on a Motion tabled by my noble friend Lord Onslow, which called on the Government to withdraw a statutory instrument laid under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Although that order was for a specific purpose—namely, the expansion of powers of entry to personnel of organisations who had not had them previously—it is germane on a more general point. The Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee produced a report on this instrument. I am not sure whether the noble and learned Lord, Lord Scott, was able to sign up to it or whether he was a member of the committee at that time. He shakes his head, so he was not; none the less, from his speech today, I am sure that he would have done. An enormous number of public sector organisations now have employees who are accorded such powers. One of my regrets about the Bill is that these organisations are not listed in a schedule, to go with the long list of legislative authority which the current schedule comprises. The Bill would, I believe, have much more force and resonate more with the public if it contained that as well. None the less, like the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, I congratulate my noble friend on his diligence: it must have taken hours and hours of work. I know from bitter experience how difficult it is for anyone but a Minister to get such matters right, so I ask the Minister whether the schedule is complete or whether my noble friend has missed one or two Acts or statutory instruments. To pick a couple of the powers at random, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act has been used in some very odd ways—Bournemouth and Poole Council harassing a mother for trying to send her child to a popular school in her catchment area, or Croydon Council trying to catch a person pruning a tree in the borough. The Terrorism Act was used to arrest a tourist photographing St Paul’s Cathedral. These examples show the disproportionate way in which legislation can be, and sometimes is, used. I make these points to put the Bill into context because it is not, regretfully, about why these intrusive powers are used but how. Clause 5 makes it clear that a person authorised by any Act or statutory instrument in the schedule should not exercise power off his own bat but only after application to a judge or magistrate, in the same way as applies to a search warrant. The only exception to this is when there is a danger to life or property. Examples might be when there is, or is likely to be, a gas explosion or perhaps when the sound of shooting is heard inside a house. Either of these scenarios might occur at any time of the day or night, so I find it somewhat curious that Clause 6 is so definitive regarding the timing; unless the court order says something different. To go back to my example of an imminent gas explosion, by the time the authorised person has succeeded in finding a magistrate on a Sunday or in the middle of the night, it might very well be too late. I should be grateful therefore if, when he comes to wind up, my noble friend would explain his thinking behind Clause 6. However, these are quibbles which can easily be explored in Committee. What cannot be dealt with then are the astonishing number of organisations that have powers of entry. My noble friend Lord Selsdon reminded us that, shortly after inheriting his position, the Prime Minister was concerned enough to institute a review into the need for additional protections and rights for the citizen. The key objectives of that review were, first, to produce a comprehensive list of powers of entry, inspection, search and seizure to provide clarity for the police and investigating agencies and, more importantly, for the public. So, although this Bill is not the complete answer, the Government are "on side" so far as concerns the reasons behind it. I further understand that this review was attached to a review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and that it was included in a consultation paper. I am sure that the Minister will be able to tell us more about that. Given the Prime Minister’s obvious desire for something to be done, I find it quite amazing that the review seems to have dropped into a black hole. It was due to have completed its final stage of consultation in the spring of last year. That is around nine months ago. By then, the intention, so the noble Lord, Lord West, told the House, was that proposals would be produced around powers of entry, especially for non-police agencies. I note the word "especially". So what has happened? As I said, I hope and expect that the Minister will tell us. There is now a certain urgency about this. As we all know, under the Terrorism Act, officers can stop and search anyone in a designated area without having to show reasonable suspicion for doing so. This is covered in Section 44 of the Act. I accept that it is not an exact parallel but it is analogous to the thorny subject of powers of entry. I had the news on Wednesday that the European Court of Human Rights said in a judgment that that legislation breached the right of privacy in a case involving two Britons who were subject to such a stop-and-search procedure outside an arms fare in 2003. Looking into the future to 2013 or 2014, could that not easily happen during the Olympic Games—an interest dear to the heart of my noble friend Lord Moynihan, whose speech I hope the Minister will take very seriously? Going back to the human rights breach, needless to say, the Home Office is to appeal. The whole purport of my noble friend’s Bill is that "we can’t go on like this", and I commend him for bringing it forward yet again.