§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill".
§ Mr. Richard Law (Kensington South)There is one point arising out of this Clause on which I should like to have some guidance from the Minister or the Attorney-General. Under the Clause, any person, providing he has a sort of blanket authority from the Minister, can enter any premises, inspect the premises, and anything found therein. He can 509 make copies of or extracts from any drawing, plan or other document that he finds, and the only conditions that have to be fulfilled are, first, that he has the blanket authority from the Minister, and, secondly, that ho has reasonable grounds for believing that work of this character is being carried out. I would like to know what constitutes reasonable grounds. Is it purely a subjective test, or is there any objective test that can be applied? If an official goes into the premises, if he has clearly made a mistake, and if in the mind of any reasonable man his grounds for assuming that work of this character was being carried on were quite unreasonable, is he cleared entirely by the fact that he says, "To me it seemed to be reasonable, and that is all I have to say"? If that is the position, and if the test is a purely subjective one and depends purely upon the personal opinion of the official concerned, not reinforced by any kind of objective evidence, it seems to me that the ordinary citizen is being subjected to a very serious infringement of his liberties. In the case of Regulation 18B, the test was, I think, purely subjective. Is it exactly the same in this case? If so, it seems to me to be very unsatisfactory.
§ The Attorney-General (Sir Hartley Shawcross)These matters are not perhaps easy but the wording of this Clause is not exactly the same as that of the Defence Regulation to which the right hon. Gentleman has referred and which was, as the right hon. Gentleman will remember, the subject of litigation which went right up to the House of Lords and in the course of which the late Lord Atkin expressed a dissenting opinion. My own view on the construction of these words is that an objective test would be applied to them, in that there would have to be, in fact, reasonable grounds to justify the entry of the inspector and I prefer to apply the reasoning which led Lord Atkin to his dissenting view in that case.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.