Extracts from remaining stages (Commons) of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill - July 5
Tuesday, 6 July 2021 08:07
Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con):...Currently, I have
a case where the National Crime Agency has kept an individual on
bail for almost six years. That is six years of being unable to
live anywhere but her home address; six years of being unable to
see her family because her passport has been withheld; six years of
being without a bank account; six years of being without a job or
career; and six years of being unable to lead a normal life. When I
took it up with the National Crime...Request free trial
(Haltemprice and Howden) (Con):...Currently, I
have a case where the National Crime Agency has kept an
individual on bail for almost six years. That is six years of being
unable to live anywhere but her home address; six years of being
unable to see her family because her passport has been withheld;
six years of being without a bank account; six years of being
without a job or career; and six years of being unable to lead a
normal life. When I took it up with the National Crime Agency I got a letter in
response, which, frankly, would have done justice to an episode of
“Yes Minister.” The most interesting point in it was a comment
making the point that investigations took a long time. It said:
“Investigations of this length are not uncommon when dealing with
complex cases.” Six years is not uncommon in a justice system where
the presumption of innocence is paramount. That is the problem that
I am addressing with my amendments. For someone who has not even
been charged, the NCA’s actions in this case make
a complete mockery of the principle of presumed innocent until
proven guilty. By the way, as an aside—separate from the Bill—we
cannot find out how many people the NCA has under
these circumstances. It is not subject to freedom of information
requests and we know nothing about its operations, yet it still
does these things...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ():...Let
me briefly address the Government amendments in this group. In
Committee, I undertook to consider further whether the reporting
duty in respect of the police covenant should be extended to apply
to the British Transport police, the Ministry of Defence police and
the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. Having reflected further, we agree.
We want the wider policing family to be included in the covenant,
and amendment 34 does exactly that, covering not only these three
forces but the National Crime Agency They do
essential work for us, and we want them and their families to be
looked after...
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