My Lords, Amendments 2, 3 and 101 make minor changes to correct an inconsistency in the current legislation relating to driving bans imposed on those who are sentenced to, or are serving, custodial terms.
The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 created an as yet unimplemented provision that requires a court, when sentencing an offender to custody and banning the offender from driving, to take account of the time the offender will spend in custody when setting the length of the driving ban. This was a widely welcomed provision and was designed to avoid a driving ban expiring, or being significantly diminished, during the period the offender is in custody. It therefore requires the court to consider the impact of the time the
offender will spend in custody and extend the driving ban by an appropriate amount. The issue that this proposed new clause and amendments address is caused by subsequent legislation—which applies only in England and Wales—that changed the process by which sentences are calculated and expressed by the court.
In short, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 took away from the courts the requirement to calculate, and deduct from the sentence, time spent on remand. This function is now carried out by the National Offender Management Service, which is best placed to calculate periods spent on remand. This change in process is, however, inconsistent with the provision introduced by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 that required the court, in setting the appropriate driving ban, to take account of the sentence length after the remand time credit has been deducted.
To allow the court to impose the extended driving ban at the same time as it imposes the custodial term, this proposed new clause, and consequential amendments to Schedule 1, remove the requirement that the court consider the sentence length after the remand time is deducted. These amendments are therefore a small change to allow the court to impose a custodial term and a suitably extended driving ban at the same time. These amendments will, in due course, allow work to proceed to commence the provisions in the 2009 Act across the country, as soon as it is practical to do so.
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Amendments 102, 112 and 182 insert new clauses and a schedule to the Bill which will allow the UK to give effect to a proposed new bilateral treaty between the UK and the Republic of Ireland permitting mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between the two states. The mutual recognition of driving disqualifications within the EU is currently permitted under the EU Convention on Driving Disqualifications, to which only the UK and the Republic of Ireland are signatories.
As the House is aware, on 1 December 2014, more than 130 measures agreed before the Lisbon treaty which affect the administration of justice and the fight against crime in this country will come under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The UK alone had the right to decide whether it wished to accept ECJ jurisdiction and Commission infraction powers for these instruments. We chose not to and exercised the opt-out in July last year. This will take effect on 1 December.
We have subsequently reached an “in principle” agreement with the Commission on a package of 35 measures to rejoin, although discussions with the Council continue. We set all this out in a Statement to the House in July. The convention is one of the provisions that we are not rejoining and, as such, mutual recognition of driving disqualifications with the Republic of Ireland will cease to be applied from 1 December 2014 until another mechanism is in place.
These amendments will allow the United Kingdom to enter into a proposed bilateral treaty with the Republic of Ireland on similar terms to those under the convention. However, the provisions will also improve
the current situation by closing the loophole which allows those falsely claiming residence in the state of offence to avoid having their disqualification recognised in their home state. Currently, an Irish driver disqualified from driving while in Great Britain is able dishonestly to claim residence there and avoid the UK notifying Ireland that the driver has been disqualified. The same situation exists for UK drivers disqualified in the Republic of Ireland. These amendments will ensure this is no longer the case.
We are also updating the list of Northern Irish offences which are mutually recognised with the Republic of Ireland to bring them into line with those that Great Britain mutually recognises with the Republic of Ireland. The amendments to the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003 give effect to the move from the EU convention to the proposed bilateral treaty.
Since implementation in 2010, mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has worked well and both this Government and the Republic of Ireland are keen to ensure that these arrangements continue. In order for a similar system to be introduced once the convention has ceased to apply in the UK, these amendments are necessary. I beg to move.