§ 8.15 p.m.
§ House again in Committee.
§ Clause 61 [Confiscation orders]:
§
The Earl of Arran moved Amendment No. 79:
Page 39, line 9, leave out ("other than a drug trafficking offence") and insert ("to which this Part of this Act applies").
§ The noble Earl said: This is purely a drafting amendment. Part V of the Bill creates powers to confiscate the proceeds of certain serious and highly profitable offences, subject to a lower limit of £10,000. The offences in question are the whole range of indictable offences, plus a small number of highly profitable summary offences listed in Schedule 3. 718 Drug trafficking offences are not included, because confiscation powers in the case of those offences are contained in the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986.
§
The offences to which Part V of the Bill applies are defined accordingly in Clause 61(9)(c). However, Clause 61(2)(a) at present gives the Crown Court power to confiscate on convicting someone for,
any offence other than a drug trafficking offence".
Very occasionally, the Crown Court may convict someone of a summary offence where that offence is joined to an indictable offence in the same proceedings. It is not the intention that the Crown Court should have power to confiscate on conviction for that kind of offence, unless it is one of the few summary offences listed in Schedule 3. Therefore, to avoid any possibility of confusion, we propose to amend Clause 61(2)(a) so that it simply refers to an offence to which this Part of the Bill applies, thus becoming linked to the definition in Clause 61(9). I beg to move.
§ On Question, amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 61, as amended, agreed to.
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The Earl of Arran had given notice of his intention to move Amendment No. 31:
After Schedule 2, insert the following new Schedule: