§ Mr. MichaelI beg to move amendment No. 13, in page 3, line 22, leave out 'before' and insert
'as soon as is practicable and in any event no later than'.
§ Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this, it will be convenient to discuss the following: Amendment No. 14, in page 3, line 27, at end insert
'or, where he also uses one or more other addresses, each of those addresses.'.
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Amendment No. 15, in page 3, line 28, leave out 'before' and insert
'as soon as is practicable and in any event no later than'.
§ Government amendments Nos. 40 and 41.
§ Amendment No. 16, in page 3, line 32, at end insert 'or addresses'.
§ Government amendment No. 42.
§ Amendment No. 17, in page 4, leave out line 3.
§ Amendment No. 18, in page 4, line 7, leave out 'or'.
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Amendment No. 19, in page 4, line 8, at end insert—
'; or
(c) if he lives or intends to live abroad, by sending a written notification of his decision to live abroad and his home address or addresses to a police station in his local police area or, in the case of a person who is living abroad, in the local police area in the United Kingdom in which he last lived.'
§ Amendment No. 20, in page 4, line 14, leave out 'in the United Kingdom'.
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Amendment No. 21, in page 4, line 18, at end insert
'or, if he lives abroad, the police area in which his last home in the United Kingdom was situated.
§ Government amendment No. 43.
§ Mr. MichaelAmendment No. 13 deals with the question of how quickly information about an offender's address or change of address should be notified. The Bill allows 14 days, but in some circumstances, especially if the offender is devious and dangerous, 14 days is a 233 considerable time. That is why we suggest that the wording in the Bill should b e replaced by the words
as soon as is practicable and in any event no later than
§ 14 days.
§ Amendment No. 14 would require an offender to notify each of his addresses if he uses more than one, rather than just a home address. The other amendments follow that logic.
§ Amendment No. 41 would place a requirement on offenders who live abroad. I beg your pardon, Mr. Deputy Speaker, amendment No. 41 is the Government amendment that deals with that issue, although not in a totally satisfactory way. Our amendment No. 17 deals with people who live part of the time in this country and part of the time abroad, and would require notification so as to keep track of their circumstances, especially when other members of the family or extended families are involved in both homes. That important area is not covered in the Bill.
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Amendment No. 19 would make provision for those who live abroad all the time or part of the time. We suggest that, if an offender lives or intends to live abroad, he should meet the requirements of the Bill
by sending a written notification of his decision to live abroad and his home address or addresses to a police station in his local police area or, in the case of a person who is living only abroad, in the police area in the United Kingdom in which he last lived.
§ The amendment gives a sensible, commonsense definition of what an individual would have to do, but avoids the gap in the treatment of offenders that would be created if offenders who moved abroad did not have to notify the police of their address. It provides sufficient flexibility so that responsibility can be placed on the offender. If someone moves abroad and does not return, failure to notify is not a problem. The amendment places the onus on the offender, and puts a residual power in the hands of the police should someone move abroad and then move backwards and forwards without due respect for the provisions of the Bill and the requirements placed on him as a result of his committing an offence that is identified in the schedules. I commend the amendments to the House.
§ Mr. KirkhopeI sympathise with the desire of the hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael) for the police to have up-to-date information at the earliest possible opportunity, which I believe is being sought in amendments Nos 13 and 15. I do not, however, believe that that approach would work in practice. What would be the earliest practical moment is a highly uncertain basis for the establishment of a criminal offence. It would put a burden on the courts to decide whether it would have been practicable for an offender to register sooner than he did, even if he registered within the 14-day limit. I do not believe that we should give the courts, the police or the prosecutors such an uncertain issue to decide, or make criminal liability dependent on that outcome. Fourteen days is a reasonable time; it is not excessive, and the public would not be provided with any further protection through the proposed changes.
9.15 pm
Nor do I believe that the requirement in amendments Nos. 14 and 16 to register all addresses that an offender 234 visits—even for a period of one night—is practical. The police would be swamped with too much information. Moreover, I am not sure what the point is of recording an address that the offender has visited once and may never visit again. Nevertheless, I recognise the concern expressed in Committee that focusing the registration requirements solely on the offender's main residence might be insufficient.
I have already said that we cannot attach registration to every address that an offender visits, but we have decided to extend the registration requirement to any other address at which an offender spends 14 days or more in any 12-month period. That is the basis of our amendments. Such a measure will catch both long periods away from home at a single address—such as away-from-home working and holiday periods—and regular visits to another address for shorter periods which have a cumulative effect. Our proposals are contained in amendments Nos. 40 to 43.
Amendments Nos. 17 to 21, which seek to place offenders under an obligation to report overseas addresses, suffer from the same difficulties of impracticality and enforcement as the other amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael) in respect of notifying addresses. We debated whether that would be possible at an earlier stage, and I made it clear then that, because the police would have no basis on which to determine whether an offence had been committed, they would not be able to prove where an offender had been when he was abroad. The matter has been carefully considered, but I am afraid that I do not see any way in which we can impose a registration requirement on those who leave, or have left, the United Kingdom. I invite the hon. Gentleman to withdraw his amendment.
§ Mr. MichaelI am disappointed by the Minister's response to what I felt were constructive amendments, but I do not intend to delay the House by pressing the matter further. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Amendments made: No. 40, in page 3, leave out line 31 and insert 'this section;'.
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No. 41, in page 3, line 32, at end insert
'or
(c) his having resided or stayed, for a qualifying period, at any premises in the United Kingdom the address of which has not been notified to the police under this section,'.
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No. 42, in page 3, line 33, leave out
'or, as the case may be, the effect of that change'
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and insert
,'the effect of that change or, as the case may be, the address of those premises'.
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No. 43, in page 4, line 18, at end insert—
' "qualifying period" means—