COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 21 July 1977)

§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 48, 49 and 50 which, with the consent of the House, I shall move en bloc. I should like at the same time to speak to Amendments Nos. 77, 89, 90, 92 to 94, 99, 120, 130, 165, 170, 175, 179, 183, 185 to 187 and 189 to 193. This formidable looking set of Amendments is concerned with the service and execution of process throughout the United Kingdom. As your Lordships will recall, we had a debate on this subject during the Report stage of the Bill, I think on 10th March, when the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Croy, moved on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, Amendments with much the same objectives as these Amendments.

On that occasion I indicated that the Government shared the concern which was felt about the inability of the police to prosecute people who commit minor offences, especially road traffic offences, in England, Wales or Scotland and who then return to Northern Ireland, where they are immune from prosecution because the law does not allow summonses to be served there. I said that consultations were already in progress about the formulation of proposals for legislation, and that while we could not guarantee that these would have been concluded in time to introduce the appropriate Amendments, we would certainly do our best. These Amendments are the result and your Lordships can judge of the complexity involved by the number and, indeed, the length of the Amendments.

456 The important Amendments are Nos. 48, 49, 50 and 120. Amendment No. 48 enables a warrant of arrest issued in one part of the United Kingdom to be executed in another part of the United Kingdom without the need to have the warrant backed, that is to say, signed by a magistrate in the other jurisdiction—an unnecessary formality which at present has to be gone through. Amendment No. 49 enables a summons which requires a person charged with an offence to appear before a court in one part of the United Kingdom, to be served on him in any other part of the United Kingdom. Amendment No. 50 confers powers on courts in Northern Ireland to make transfer of fine orders, and extends the existing English and Scottish powers to make such orders so as to enable them to make transfers to, and receive transfers from, Northern Ireland. The Schedule—Amendment No. 120—sets out in detail the procedure for doing this.

I think that these formidable Amendments demonstrate the problem which the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Croy, identified at the Report stage. It would be only right to pay a considerable tribute to the officials not only in my own Department but in others, who have wrestled with this problem and come up with this solution which I think will meet with the satisfaction of the House.

Lord CAMPBELL of CROY

I should like to express the appreciation both of myself and my noble friend Lord Inglewood for the fact that the Government have been able to put down this large number of Amendments clearly dealing with a complicated situation. I assume from what the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Greenwich, has said, that they will remove the anomaly which existed and will enable summonses to be served on operators of vehicles in Northern Ireland whose vehicles commit offences in Scotland, England or Wales. There are many more vehicles now coming over from Northern Ireland, and this has been an increasing source of grievance especially in South-West Scotland and North-West England.

I, too, should like to pay a tribute to the work which the officials must have 457 carried out in the time between the Report stage and when these Amendments were considered in another place. I am sure that they will be welcomed, not only in the areas that I have mentioned but in other parts of the country where there has been this grievance about the apparent immunity of certain drivers of vehicles.