Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I am afraid there is danger of a split on the Front Bench of the Liberal Democrats, because my noble friend Lord Mar and Kellie is very proud of his hereditary right to trawl for salmon in the estuarial waters of the Firth of Forth. It is clear that for him the offence in paragraph 11(1) of Schedule 1 is very serious. I, too, am a bit worried because I recall that many years ago I lent my 12 year-old nephew a rod with mackerel feathers on it and told him to go off and fish in the sea at Uist. Off he went to have the rod confiscated by a very large—about six foot six—Liverpudlian ghillie. I was sent down there to assert rights of ownership, only to be told where to go by the Liverpudlian ghillie. I ended up crawling to the local laird for my rod back. Would innocently providing an instrument come within Clause 4(2)(b)? I was without any knowledge that we were committing a criminal offence and Iwas not reckless, but it seems to me that, under this legislation, I could have been subjected for participating in a criminal offence to an order in the High Court that would have me house arrested. That is where this legislation leads. When we talk about salmon fishery in paragraph 11, are we talking about salmon in fresh water or in the sea? Does it cover the illegitimate poaching of salmon off the Farne Islands, which is one of the reasons why there are no salmon in the rivers? The noble Baroness spoke about people getting into crime; there is no point in getting into the crime of poaching salmon in rivers these days because there are no salmon in them, as I know to my cost. This schedule is a mishmash. What has happened is that a few phone calls have been made to every government department asking them to come up with a crime that can be put in the nice new schedule, so that we can lock people up in their own homes if they commit it. I know it is absurd, but that is because the Bill is absurd.