Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I have no intention of inhibiting the debate, but I rise just to say to noble Lords that we intend to be helpful on this amendment. That may allow noble Lords to shorten their commentary. I shall explain our thinking on this. The intent behind the clause is to enable law enforcement officers to be able to specify certain minor elements of how an order should be complied with. For example, where the terms of an orderstate that a person must provide information to law enforcement officers on a regular basis, it seems reasonable to allow them to specify, for instance, that the information should be provided to a specified person at a specified time each month. This is simply a means of trying to provide a practical system which will work effectively. As my noble friend Lady Scotland hinted on our first day in Committee, we have been giving the issues raised by Clause 5(7) some thought, and having heard the points made by several noble Lords at Second Reading we have been looking at the provision again to see whether it requires further amendment. What I can say today is that while we cannot support these amendments for the reasons I have just outlined and because we believe the policy intent behind it serves a useful purpose, we understand the concerns and issues raised here and we should like to take the amendments away in order to bring something back with which all noble Lords, in particular the movers and supporters of these amendments, will feel content. Having said that, I hope that the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw her amendment.