HL Deb 04 February 1965 vol 262 cc1320-5

7.3 p.m.

Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee read.

Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee.—(Lord Stonham.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.

House in Committee accordingly.

[The Lord Merthyr in the Chair.] Clauses 1 to 4 agreed to.

Clause 5 [Remand]:

LORD STONHAM moved, after subsection (3), to insert: ( ) If, in breach of a recognisance taken from him under this section, a person fails to surrender as aforesaid, the court by which he was remanded may, without prejudice to the enforcement of the recognisance, issue a warrant in the prescribed form for his arrest; and on his arrest under the warrant subsection (3) of this section shall apply as if he had surrendered to the officer in charge of the police station specified in the recognisance, but that officer shall not release him as provided by that subsection unless he is satisfied that it is proper to do so. A warrant issued under this subSection 1n any part of the United Kingdom shall be treated for the purposes of any enactment or rule of law relating to warrants of arrest as if it were a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with an offence committed in that part.

The noble Lord said: I beg to move Amendment No. 1 on the Marshalled List. Clause 5 of the Bill provides for remands in custody and the granting of bail. Unfortunately, it makes no provision for the arrest of persons who "jump" their bail, and the purpose of this Amendment is to repair that not insignificant omission. We seek to provide specific authority for the apprehension of a person who, having been remanded on bail under the provisions of subsection (1) (b) of the clause, fails to surrender in accordance with the conditions on which the bail was granted; and we also seek to make it clear that the normal rules applying for the discharge of warrants for arrest apply to one issued under this subsection. The proposed new subsection therefore provides that where a person fails to surrender to his bail, the court by which he was remanded may issue a warrant for his arrest; that when he is arrested, the period of remand shall be deemed to have terminated; and that a warrant so issued shall be treated as if it were a warrant relating to a criminal offence committed in the United Kingdom.

This provision is necessary since, although Section 97 of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952, provides that a magistrates' court may issue a warrant for the arrest of any person charged with or convicted of an offence who fails to appear before the court after having been remanded on bail to do so, it seems that this power does not apply in certain circumstances of failure to surrender, following a remand on bail granted by a magistrates' court under this Bill—for example, where the remand has been intended as the precursor, not of the further appearance before the court, but of delivery to a convenient point of departure from the United Kingdom into the custody of a member of the Garda Sí ochána.

In the circumstances, therefore, it was thought right to provide a specific power of arrest in the case of a person who fails to surrender in accordance with the conditions of bail granted under the provisions of this Bill. At the same time, we think it necessary to make it clear that the normal rules applying to the discharge of warrants for arrest apply to warrants issued under this subsection. I hope that with this explanation the need for this Amendment will be even more clear to the Committee than it is to me, and that your Lordships will accept the Amendment. I beg to move.

Amendment moved— Page 5, line 44, at end insert the said subsection.—(Lord Stonham.)

LORD DERWENT

I regret not having pointed out the omission to the noble Lord before he discovered it himself.

LORD STONHAM

Perhaps I may say to the noble Lord that I regret even more that he did not discover the omission when he was responsible for this Bill.

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

LORD STONHAM

moved, at the beginning of subsection (4), to insert "The foregoing provisions of". The noble Lord said: Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 are on the same point and, with your Lordships' agreement, I will therefore discuss them together. These Amendments modify the original subsection (4), which provided that this clause should not apply in Scotland, as it has now been decided that it is necessary to make provision in Scotland for remands in custody or on bail under the terms of the Bill.

I should like to make two apologies, one for the absence of my noble friend Lord Hughes, who would be moving the Amendments but for the fact that he is away on other urgent business, and the other for the fact that, having only one-quarter pretension to Scottish ancestry, I have to move it in his stead. But this is no brash incursion into the affairs of Scotland. As your Lordships may remember, when noble Lords of my Party were on the other side of the House there was a period when we had no active Scottish Peer. In those days I ventured somewhat into the Scottish field, and I hope, therefore, that you will forgive this further incursion.

The proposed paragraph (a) of Amendment No. 3 is the Scottish counterpart of subsections (1) and (2) of Clause 5. It makes provision for a sheriff court to remand, either in custody or on bail, a person whom it has ordered to be returned to the Irish Republic, or who has been brought up under a provisional warrant. A person remanded in custody may be committed to prison or to legalised police cells. In the case of the person arrested under an endorsed warrant under Clause 2 (1), it shall be a condition of bail that the person must give himself up to the officer in charge of a specified police station at a certain time, notice of which will be handed to him by the officer or someone acting on his behalf. The time mentioned in the notice must not be more than 24 hours before the time when the period of remand is likely, in the opinion of the officer in charge of the station, to end. Paragraph (b) of Amendment No. 3 is the Scottish counterpart of subsection (3) of Clause 5. It provides that if a person has surrendered, and it then appears that the period of remand will be unexpectedly delayed, the officer to whom he has surrendered may continue the bail on the conditions already applied; that is to say, he surrenders again at a stated time.

Paragraph (c) of the third Amendment is the Scottish equivalent of the new subsection. It makes provision that when a person remanded on bail fails to surrender to the police at the stated time, either on the first occasion or on any subsequent occasion, where the bail has been continued, the court granting bail may order forfeiture of the bail and issue a warrant for his arrest, and such a warrant falls to be treated as if it were a warrant of arrest on a criminal charge.

As your Lordships will have noticed, there are two minor differences between the Scottish provisions which we now propose to put in this Bill and those for England and Wales. In the first place, there is no such provision as is contained in the English part of the clause about committal on remand to the custody of a police officer. This is never the practice in Scotland, as I am sure the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, will be aware, where remand is either on bail or in custody in prison. Arrangements are made by court officials, or the prison staff, to enable a person who has been granted bail to make the necessary arrangements to try to obtain the security required by the court. Secondly, the requirement to surrender to the police on the service of a notice is restricted to remands under Clause 2 (1). It does not apply in the case of a short period of remand such as is provided for under the provisional warrant procedure, where surrender will be to the court. This is because in Scotland the grant of a discretion to the police is not considered to be of such practical value, in the case of short periods of remand, as to justify a departure from normal Scottish practice in this matter. I beg to move.

Amendment moved—

Page 5, line 45, at end insert: ("The foregoing provisions of".)—(Lord Stonham.)

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

LORD STONHAM

I beg to move Amendment No. 3.

Amendment moved—

Page 5, line 45, at end insert: (", but the following provisions shall apply—

  1. (a) where under section 2 (1) or section 4 (3) of this Act a court has power to remand a person, the court may remand him either in custody or on bail, and if remanded on bail under the said section 2 (1) it shall be made a condition of the bail bond that the person remanded shall surrender to the officer in charge of a specified police station at the time mentioned in a notice in writing to be served on him by or on behalf of that officer, but the time mentioned in a notice so served shall not be more than twenty-four hours before the time at which it appears to that officer that the period of remand is likely to end;
  2. (b) where it appears to the officer to whom a person surrenders as aforesaid that the end of the period of remand under the said section 2 (1) will be unexpectedly delayed he shall release that person on continued bail conditioned as provided in the foregoing paragraph;
  3. (c) if a person remanded on bail fails to comply with the terms of the bail bond, the bail may be forfeited and the court which remanded him may grant warrant for his arrest, and a warrant so granted shall be treated for the purposes of any enactment or rule of law relating to warrants of arrest as if it were a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with an offence."—(Lord Stonham.)

On Question, Amendment agreed to.

Clause 5, as amended, agreed to.

Remaining clauses and Schedule agreed to.

House resumed.

Bill reported, with Amendments.