My Lords, in moving Amendment 30, I will also speak to Amendment 32. Amendment 30 deals with the code to be issued and proposes that it should give guidance on the circumstances prosecutors should consider rather than the general principles to be applied. On first reading the paragraph, I thought there should be parliamentary oversight, but then realised that the paragraph is about the application of the general principles not about the principles themselves. However, it seems to be not wholly clear and I invite the Minister to confirm that the words in paragraph 6(1)(a) are intended to be about the circumstances that the prosecutor should consider. The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 provides for the DPP, in other matters, to issue a code,
“giving guidance on general principles”.
I could not find whether there is any parliamentary oversight of that. I think the answer is probably that it is included in the DPP’s annual report. Something novel and major is being brought into our law and there should be no room for doubt as to the extent of the remit of the DPP and the Director of the Serious Fraud Office in this.
Amendment 32 would substitute the provision that prosecutors must “take account of” the code with “have regard to”. I want to understand whereabouts in the hierarchy—or perhaps on the spectrum—this is intended to be. I could not find in the legislation whether prosecutors are to take account of the current code under the 1985 Act, have regard to it or do something entirely different. The Minister may well be about to tell me that the words used here replicate words used elsewhere on the code. I beg to move.