Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 117:"Page 11, line 7, leave out ““suspects”” and insert ““has reasonable grounds to suspect””" The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 117, I shall speak also to the identical amendments, Amendment No. 119. Under Clause 22(3) and 22(4), the commission is empowered, or may be required by the Secretary of State, to open a potentially wide-ranging investigation in which the person being investigated has an obligation to provide the fullest possible co-operation under the threat of condign penalties. Schedule 2, which gives directions about the conduct of such an investigation, does not, as far as I can see, grant the person the right to refuse to co-operate on the basis of the right against self-incrimination. However, for the purposes of this debate, I am prepared to assume that the Government acknowledge that that right overrides this Bill, either under the common law or under the Human Rights Act 1998. It concerns me that a gigantic fishing expedition may be launched by the commission, either on its own initiative or at the behest of the Secretary of State, on the basis of the purely subjective test that one or other of them merely suspects that someone has committed an unlawful act. Anyone can claim that he suspects something without having reasonable grounds for doing so or even, in this case, without being obliged to specify why he suspects whatever it is. The amendment would impose on the commission or the Secretary of State the need to have reasonable grounds for their suspicion before an action can be taken. There is ample precedent for the requirement. I draw the Committee’s attention to Section 25 of the Police and   Criminal Evidence Act 1984, under which police officers may arrest a person as the preliminary to an investigation, or as part of it, only if they have ““reasonable grounds”” to suspect that an offence has been committed. I see no grounds why the commission—even though it cannot arrest anyone—or the Secretary of State should have a lesser obligation about the standard of suspicion before acting. The amendment does not impose on the commission or on the Secretary of State any obligation or standard of conduct that they could possibly be unwilling to accept. I beg to move.