UK Borders Bill

I am grateful to the Minister. In that case, we face a period in which these penalties will not apply, and that period may be several years because, as the Minister acknowledged, other priorities for the Probation Service—dealing with more serious offences—have led to the indefinite postponement of custody plus so the penalties that are provided in this clause are also postponed indefinitely. How will assaults on immigration officers be treated in the mean time? Will they continue to be treated as common assault? If so, is there any point in having a different penalty when common assault could be assimilated to the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 by providing that the penalty, which is at present six months, should be replaced in that Act by 51 weeks which, as the Minister explained will be divided up when custody plus is initiated into a short period of custodial imprisonment followed by a longer period of probation. If the intention is to continue using common assault for the next couple of years, it is a pity that is not made plain in the Explanatory Notes. There is nothing to lead one to that conclusion in the notes. One reads the Bill, certainly these clauses, in the expectation that the 51 weeks will be coming into operation in the fairly near future. It is clear from what the Minister said that that is not so, and we have a long hiatus before the provisions in this clause or in Clause 21 are brought into effect. It is generally unsatisfactory to provide in legislation for things that will not happen for some considerable time and that are brought into effect by an order that many never happen. Between now and the date when custody plus is implemented, there may be further thinking on how resources in the Probation Service should best be used. These provisions would never come into existence, and we would be left with the offence of common assault. I also asked the noble Lord why there are specific offences of assaulting a police officer, a customs official or an immigration officer when in all three cases the penalty is the same, and perhaps he will deal with that before we finish with this amendment.