LIABILITY FOR WRONGFUL ACTS OF CONSTABLES (Hansard, 7 May 1998)

§ Mr. Worthington
I beg to move amendment No. 18, in page 16, line 2, at end insert—

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this, it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: No. 56, in page 16, line 4, after 'appropriate', insert
', and subject to the approval of the Police Authority'.' Government amendments Nos. 19 and 35 to 38.

§ Mr. Worthington
In the hope of curtailing our debate, I shall begin by responding to the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis)—although he has not spoken yet in this debate—so that he can see just how reasonable we are.
Amendment No. 56 would require the Chief Constable to obtain the approval of the Police Authority before paying damages for the wrongful actions of his officers. This is a considerable extension of the authority's existing powers in this area, and I suspect that it does not do what the hon. Gentleman sought anyway.
914 The authority's existing power under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1970 is to assess whether the Chief Constable has taken appropriate legal advice in making the decision to settle a case out of court, and ensuring that he pays sufficient regard to the need for economy in the use of public resources in agreeing the amount of any settlement.
As the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for East Kilbride (Mr. Ingram), said in Committee, this power should continue. However, he did not think primary legislation was the appropriate place for it. We considered the issue at length and there have since been consultations on it with the Police Authority.
The concerns expressed, both by hon. Members and by the Police Authority, have been taken on board; they will be described in detail when we move to the Government amendments to clause 29. Amendment No. 56 would not only require the Police Authority to assess whether the Chief Constable had taken appropriate legal advice, but require the authority to form a view on whether an officer had committed a wrong in the course of his duty, and therefore whether the Chief Constable should be liable for the payment of damages. That could give rise to a court finding, as a matter of fact and law, that a police officer had committed a wrong against a member of the public. If the officer were acting in the course of duty, the Chief Constable would be liable for damages in such a situation.
Under the amendment, it would be open to the Police Authority to refuse to approve the payment, which would leave the officer himself liable to pay damages which, in many cases, he would be unlikely to be able to do. That gives the authority the power to make decisions in an area that is properly the responsibility of a court; I do not believe that that is what the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough intended, and I know that it is not a power that the Police Authority is seeking. I would therefore request that the amendment be withdrawn.
As for Government amendments Nos. 18 and 19, as I have said, we discussed clause 29 at considerable length in Committee. I said at that time that I was prepared to listen to reasoned arguments and consider possible amendments on Report, provided I could see the strength of the argument, and could assure myself that the Chief Constable's position was properly protected. An understanding has been arrived at with the Police Authority that this matter will be governed by a set of principles that safeguard the interests of all concerned.
The legal position and the powers that the amendment gives the Police Authority are precisely as they were described, when we set out the position under the 1970 Act, in the ninth sitting of Standing Committee B on 5 March. That being so, I am more than happy to amend the Bill so that it maintains the present position regarding civil claims.
The Government amendments to schedule 4 are incidental to the new financial arrangements provided by clause 10(5). They ensure that moneys required to be paid as a result of actions against the Chief Constable under the race relations legislation, the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 and the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 are paid out of the grant made available to the Chief Constable for police purposes under clause 10(5).
915 I hope that the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough will not press his amendment, in the light of the changes that we are making to clause 29. I commend the Government amendments to the House.

§ Mr. Willis
It is a strange experience to have one's arguments about an amendment answered before they are made and to have one's amendment withdrawn, as it were, before one has said that one wants to withdraw it. Nevertheless, I understand the Minister's point—and, indeed, we do not want to press an amendment that would cause difficulties.
The relationship between damages awarded against a constable or even the Chief Constable—in effect, against the police force—the payment of those damages, and the Police Authority raises an important principle. There is grave concern in the United Kingdom as a whole at the way in which chief constables sometimes deal with those claims in isolation from police authorities, as police authorities take the flak when something goes wrong. We tabled the amendment to seek clarification, so I am grateful to the Minister for his response.