Serious Crime Bill [HL]

My noble friend Lord Lucas rightly referred to the fact that in Clause 4 there is a defence of reasonableness from the point of view of the innocent trader. My concern always is when an innocent person has to avail himself of a reversed burden of proof. We have already had a debate on that in another context. The Minister has assisted me by further clarifying intent. She said in particular that the majority of applications are likely to be under Clause 2(1)(a) and (b), but maintains that there could be occasions when paragraph (c) would be appropriate. I will certainly read very carefully what she has said with regard to that. She went on to say that she anticipated that cogent evidence would be required that a business was being used for criminal purposes. We have talked too much about adapted lorries today, but I recall that not so long ago the police successfully brought such a prosecution. That makes me think again that there might still be arguments against the need for crime prevention orders on those specific occasions. The Minister might have unintentionally assisted the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, who is on my right, at least on this occasion, in his quest to abandon Part 1. He does not have me on his bandwagon at the moment regarding that, but we will see what happens in the future. The noble Baroness has done the Committee a service by clarifying those issues, particularly regarding timing as I can indicate that as a result of her explanation I will not move my amendment on recklessness after what I anticipate will be the diner break. On this occasion, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 13 not moved.]