All 1 Debates between Lord Dear and Lord Kennedy of Southwark

Wed 2nd Nov 2016
Policing and Crime Bill
Lords Chamber

Committee: 3rd sitting (Hansard - part two): House of Lords & Committee: 3rd sitting (Hansard - part two): House of Lords

Policing and Crime Bill

Debate between Lord Dear and Lord Kennedy of Southwark
Committee: 3rd sitting (Hansard - part two): House of Lords
Wednesday 2nd November 2016

(7 years, 12 months ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 55-III(a) Amendments for Committee, supplementary to the third marshalled list (PDF, 64KB) - (1 Nov 2016)
Lord Dear Portrait Lord Dear
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My Lords, can I just put on the record what Section 60AA(2) of the 1994 Act says? To the best of my knowledge, it has not raised any problems in law so far. It says:

“This subsection confers power on any constable in uniform … to require any person to remove any item which the constable reasonably believes”—

those words are a well-known test in law—

“that person is wearing wholly or mainly for the purpose of concealing his identity”.

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Portrait Lord Kennedy of Southwark
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Briefly, I agree with my noble friend Lord Harris of Haringey, that the noble Lord, Lord Dear, has raised an important issue. However, it needs careful consideration for the reasons that my noble friend outlined. I therefore hope that the Minister will agree that the Government will take this away and have a look at this issue. We all want to make sure that the police have the appropriate power, but equally, of course, we should ensure that the proper safeguards are built in so that unintended consequences, which no one would want to occur, do not cause problems as well.