My Lords, these regulations form part of the Government’s ongoing work to ensure that there are functioning domestic laws in the event that the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal. They relate solely to the Government’s no-deal exit preparations. Should Parliament approve the withdrawal agreement, which incorporates an implementation period, and pass the legislation necessary to implement that agreement, the commencement of these regulations would be deferred until completion of the implementation period.
The regulations amend or revoke legislation relating to five EU measures; first, the victims of crime compensation directive. That directive established that each EU member state should have a national scheme to provide compensation to victims of violent intentional crime. It also provided for liaison between the relevant authorities of each member state to facilitate the compensation of victims. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority manages the compensation scheme for England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has a separate scheme; however, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority is the assisting authority for the whole of the United Kingdom and liaises with other member states to help victims apply for compensation from them.
The second matter is the European protection orders. The directive provides a framework to allow certain kinds of protection order made in criminal proceedings in one member state to be transferred to another EU member state where it can be recognised and enforced.
Thirdly, there are the European supervision orders. These enable the transfer of certain supervision measures between EU member states. For example, bail granted subject to conditions issued in criminal proceedings in one member state can be transferred to another EU member state to be recognised and supervised there.
Fourthly, the mutual recognition of financial penalties provided a framework so that certain financial penalties imposed in criminal proceedings in one member state can be forwarded to another EU member state for enforcement.
Fifthly and finally is the matter of taking account of convictions in EU member states in the course of new criminal proceedings in the United Kingdom. This requires known prior convictions in another EU member state to be taken into account—for example, when passing sentence—to the extent that national law requires national convictions to be taken into account. This means that, upon sentencing, the court in any member state can treat convictions from another member state exactly as they would domestic convictions.
The purpose of this instrument is to address the changes necessary in domestic law upon our exit, in the event that we exit without a deal. I will not go into the detail of what the SI does for each EU measure or tool—I hope that the regulations themselves, the Explanatory Memorandum and the provisional impact assessment are already clear on that—but I will briefly draw attention to the main points and to what occurs in the event that we leave without a deal.
For the victims of crime compensation directive, the instrument will revoke the implementing legislation relating to mutual assistance since it provides a system of intra-EU member state co-operation that will not be present in a no-deal scenario. I emphasise that the regulations do not impact on our national compensation scheme; that will continue.
For the European protection order directive, the instrument will revoke the implementing legislation since the scheme can operate only between EU member states, and in this scenario the United Kingdom will not be one. We take the opportunity of these regulations to make transitional provision to ensure that any order made consequent to an incoming request received prior to exit will continue to be enforceable until its conclusion, whenever that is, so that persons will remain protected. I should add that this system is seldom used. My understanding is that only four orders have been made by the courts of England and Wales in respect of such protection orders since it came into operation, while only six applications have been received from EU member states. That is over a period of three years.
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With regard to the European supervision order framework decision, the regulations will revoke the implementing legislation. Again, this system can operate only between EU member states and when we cease to be a member state, it will be inoperable. This scheme has also been seldom used, as noted in the Explanatory Memorandum and impact assessment. I can update the figures: I think there is a reference to a total of four applications having been received, but since the regulation was lodged there have been a further six. That makes a total of 10 applications in the four years since the framework directive was implemented. The numbers are obviously very small.
With regard to the mutual recognition of financial penalties framework decision, the regulations revoke the implementing legislation, again because mutual recognition and enforcement is between member states alone. There is a transitional provision to allow domestic enforcement to continue to finalisation in respect of any request that was received prior to exit.
Finally, I refer to the taking account of convictions framework decision. The regulations will amend the implementing legislation to provide that for proceedings which commence post exit, individuals with prior convictions from EU member states will be treated the same as individuals with any other non-UK prior conviction. There are again transitional provisions in place providing that the current rules will apply for cases ongoing at the time of exit.
The impacts of these changes on citizens, businesses and the public and voluntary sectors are regarded as minimal. An impact assessment was placed in the Libraries
of both Houses ahead of this debate. In the event of a no-deal scenario we would see created deficiencies in the domestic legislation implementing these five EU tools which the Ministry of Justice is responsible for if we left the legislation unchanged. Anyone involved in a live matter at that point or considering the options afterwards would therefore be unsure what legal framework applies to their circumstances. The deficiencies I refer to flow in part from the simple fact that in a no-deal scenario, the United Kingdom would no longer be an EU member state. As I indicated, these European Union tools are constructed to be operated by and between EU member states. Four of the five regulations that I have addressed require reciprocity between the UK as a member state and other member states of the European Union to operate. Of course, that reciprocity will not be present if we have a no-deal exit.
The purpose of the regulations themselves is simply to promote as orderly a withdrawal as is possible in such circumstances and to provide a degree of certainty for those who need to navigate the criminal justice landscape in a no-deal scenario. In addition, they provide clarity for anyone considering these matters in the EU context. In these circumstances, I commend the regulations to the Committee.