Serious Crime Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am anxious not to repeat too much of what has been said so compellingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay. At present the Bill allows the court to decide that any involvement in a particular offence warrants a serious crime prevention order even if that offence has not been specified by Parliament as a serious offence in the list set out in Schedule 1. That will do damage to the principle of legal certainty; it will be impossible for a person to ascertain in advance what the likely legal consequences of their actions will be. There isa lack of clarity and certainty. A prosecutor may believe that a particular offence is serious and that involvement in it warrants a serious crime prevention order, even though the legislation does not specify that the courts should consider that offence to be serious. When that is taken together with the provision that the prosecutor has no legal obligation to prove that the person’s actions were unreasonable, this casts the net far too wide. The result will be that many innocent individuals could have to incur the distress and cost of being brought before the court and required to produce a defence. In response to these concerns, the Governmentuse the now all too familiar argument that times change, legal flexibility is needed, and the courts can be trusted. Given the impact that a serious crime prevention order could have on a person’s reputation, rights and freedoms, such arguments are not satisfactory. The proposal would deny members of the public the right to know when their behaviour might lead to them being subjected to a serious crime prevention order. Parliament should not abdicate its responsibility for making laws clear and intelligible, and it should not leave people in a legal limbo where they cannot predict the likely legal consequences of their actions.