Protection of Freedoms Bill

My Lords, I was just about to say to my noble friend that I know that he was not talking about speed camera technology at all. It was just for the benefit of the rest of the Committee. I thought it was an appropriate point for me to make that clear, in case anybody else might not be as clear as my noble friend is on this matter. I refer first to my noble friend’s Amendment 103, which, as he has explained, seeks to clarify the drafting of Clause 33(3). I believe that the meaning of that subsection is already clear, as ““such proceedings”” unambiguously refers back to ““criminal or civil proceedings”” in subsection (2); we simply do not need to repeat those words in subsection (3). My noble friend’s Amendment 104 suggests that this Bill takes away the right to seek redress where a court has ruled that the code of practice has been breached. We believe this would have significant implications for litigants. In the context of civil proceedings—just to be clear, for example, we might be talking here of someone seeking to enforce the payment of parking charges—a claimant should be able to present all relevant evidence in support of his or her case. Given that the surveillance code of practice will set out guidance rather than rigid requirements for the operation of surveillance camera systems, it would in our view be disproportionate to prevent, as a matter of course, CCTV evidence being presented where a court or tribunal has ruled that there has been a breach of the code. Clause 33(4) makes it clear that the court should have discretion in taking into account a failure by a relevant authority to have regard to the surveillance camera code in determining a question in any such proceedings. In the context of criminal proceedings, the ramifications of the amendment in terms of the overall fairness of the process are potentially more significant. The effect of the amendment might be to exclude key prosecution evidence or evidence that might exonerate the accused. Our general approach, as I have already explained, should be to leave decisions about the admissibility of CCTV evidence to the court or tribunal in question. Amendment 105 proposes that if the organisation levying the penalty is a ““relevant authority”” under Clause 33, and the court rules that it has in some way breached the proposed code of practice, it could require it to repay moneys that it had received through those notices. There are already existing powers and procedures under the Traffic Management Act 2004 for appealing penalty charge notices issued in designated civil enforcement areas. These are well established and provide every opportunity for justice to be done effectively and proportionately. These powers and procedures apply equally to all parking and enforcement agencies issuing penalty charge notices under that Act and provide adequate safeguards for the public from any operator who steps over the line in issuing penalty charge notices. My noble friend’s amendment would create a two-tier arrangement that would deny a ““relevant authority””, as designated in the Bill, access to justice and place substantial financial risks on it, but would not affected other operators in the same way. A further unintended consequence of the amendment is that it would define the nature and content of the code of practice from the perspective of establishing a judicial assessment of compliance. That is not our intention. The code of practice should provide clear and practical advice about when and how such systems should be used and how to get the best use out of them. Given the wide range of purposes for which surveillance cameras can be deployed and the settings in which they are used, it would not be desirable to prescribe absolute standards for interpretation by the courts in determining such profound consequences for any breach. One of the functions of the Surveillance Camera Commission is to encourage compliance with the surveillance camera code. I would expect the commissioner to have a central role in ensuring that any relevant judgments in respect of the code were widely publicised. I hope that I have provided enough information to my noble friend for him to consider not pressing his amendments.