Police and Justice Bill

First, in quoting how Mr Norman Brennan was quoted in the Daily Mail, I hope that I made it clear that he was referring to a specific change from what appears to be the current practice to the future one. His response that the changes were ““nonsense”” refers particularly to the imposition of punishment as a matter of conditional cautions rather than to the current conditions of reparation and rehabilitation. His major concerns arise because conditional cautions impose punishment in the future coupled with the fact that order-making powers make it possible for a much broader range of offences to be included. We will be able to develop the point in the debate on Clause 15 stand part. The noble and learned Lord follows the line which I suspect any Government would take: ““Do not take any order-making power away from us; we want flexibility. We do not want to take up the House’s time with primary legislation””. In most cases that is a proper argument, and in many cases a solution can be found by using the affirmative rather than negative resolution procedure. I am grateful for the noble and learned Lord’s indication that the Government intend to adopt the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s recommendation that the affirmative procedure is to be preferred. If that is the case and the fine level—the monetary punishment—can be changed by order simply to reflect changes in the value of money, it is only sensible that it should not have to be changed through the affirmative procedure. My broader concern is that substantial changes in how we mete out administrative punishment may not necessarily be properly carried out by an order-making process. Changes to the criminal justice system are occasionally so significant that they should not be relegated to secondary legislation. I will consider the matter very carefully over the summer months, once we have had the opportunity to debate these amendments and to discuss the matter more fully before Report. Although I am very concerned about the potential for order-making powers to be used to increase administrative punishment very widely, for now I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.