Commentary on Sections
420.Part 1 provides for the establishment of eligibility for transfer of park constables to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) by regulation and a power to terminate Crown employment.
421.Part 1 also provides for the Secretary of State to make schemes to transfer constables, property, rights and liabilities from the RPC to the MPA. The Schedule sets out the provisions which a transfer scheme may include. In particular, it may provide for RPC constables who wish and are eligible to do so, to become attested as Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) constables. Alternatively, the scheme may provide for them to transfer to employment by the MPA as CSOs or police staff, if they are eligible and wish to do so. The scheme may provide for the continuity of employment of transferred constables and for periods of service as a RPC constable to count towards benefits available as an MPS constable which are dependent of length of service.
422.Part 2 makes amendments to primary legislation. Most amendments are consequential on the abolition of the RPC. However, paragraph 13 amends the Police Reform Act 2002, firstly so as to add breaches of park regulations to the list of “relevant offences” in relation to which CSOs have limited powers of detention as set out in paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 to that Act, and secondly in order to provide CSOs with power to take temporary possession of items which they suspect have been used in the commission of a park trading offence.
423.This section disapplies the Parks Regulation Act 1872 to parks specified in an order made by the Secretary of State. In practice this means the Royal Parks. The section preserves the power of the Secretary of State to make regulations in respect of the specified parks. Subsection (3) re-enacts in updated form the requirement in section 10 of the Parks Regulation Act 1872 in relation to the display of park regulations in the specified parks.
424.These sections make a number of amendments to Part 5 of the Police Act 1997 (“the 1997 Act”). They improve the effectiveness of the Disclosure service provided by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) (and its counterparts in Scotland – “Disclosure Scotland” – and Northern Ireland) which provides criminal record certificates and enhanced criminal record certificates (commonly known as ‘Standard Disclosures’ and ‘Enhanced Disclosures’ respectively) about convictions and related information. It provides these certificates in response to applications from persons seeking posts and positions within the scope of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 or in relation to Scotland the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Order 2003.
425.This section replaces sections 113 and 115 of the 1997 Act which deal with criminal record certificates and enhanced criminal record certificates respectively. These new provisions, which insert new sections 113A – 113F into the 1997 Act, consolidate the existing provisions, which have been subject to a number of amendments under earlier legislation, and make some changes to existing arrangements.
426.New section 113A consolidates the provisions for criminal record certificates, and new section 113B for enhanced criminal record certificates. New section 113B also extends the range of police forces and other organisations from whom the CRB (and disclosure bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland) can seek non-conviction information for the purposes of enhanced criminal record certificates to include bodies such as the British Transport Police and HM Revenue and Customs (new section 113B (10) and (11)). This is in response to part of recommendation 31 of the report of the Bichard Inquiry (see paragraph 61 above).
427.New section 113C consolidates the provisions for criminal record certificates relating to searches done when the applicant wants to work with children. It also gives the CRB access to additional lists maintained in Scotland and Northern Ireland which are comparable to the lists maintained in England and Wales of people who are unsuitable to work with children, and an order-making power to allow the Secretary of State to add more such lists in the future (new section 113C(3)). This gives effect to the remainder of recommendation 31 of the Bichard Inquiry report. (Disclosure Scotland would similarly have access to lists maintained in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland.) The section also brings a child’s prospective special guardian and other people living in the same household within the scope of the categories of people in relation to whom criminal or enhanced criminal record certificates can include information in relation to matters specified in new section 113C(1).
428.New section 113D consolidates the provisions for criminal record certificates relating to searches done when the applicant wants to work with vulnerable adults. In a similar way to section 113C, it also gives the CRB access to additional lists maintained in Scotland and Northern Ireland comparable to the lists maintained in England and Wales of people who are unsuitable to work with vulnerable adults, and an order-making power to allow the Secretary of State to add more such lists in the future (subsection 113D(3)). Disclosure bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland will also be given access to all specified vulnerable adults’ lists.
429.New section 113E sets out the arrangements for the conduct of initial checks against lists of people unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable adults in exceptional circumstances, so that a person may be permitted to start work in advance of the CRB's certificate being issued. It also allows the CRB to make an additional charge for this additional service. The new arrangements will also apply to the disclosure bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland. New section 113F contains supplementary provisions and is part of the consolidation of the previous provisions. It also contains references to relevant legislation from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
430.Subsection (4) of section 163 enables the Secretary of State to make transitional arrangements for checks on persons seeking to become children's special guardians or about whom a court is considering whether to make a special guardianship order if the provisions of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, which establish such guardians, are brought into force before the new sections 113A to 113F of the 1997 Act.
431.The section enables the CRB (and disclosure bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland) to check passports and driving licences presented by applicants in order to verify their identity. It creates a statutory gateway to enable the disclosure bodies to access information held by the UK Passport Agency, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland and also the database of National Insurance numbers maintained by the Department for Work and Pensions. It gives effect to recommendation 23 of the report of the Bichard Inquiry.
432.This section contains amendments to sections 119, 120A and 124A of the Police Act 1997. Subsection (1)(a)amends subsection 119(3) to allow the Secretary of State to determine administratively the fees which are payable to police authorities for dealing with requests for information. Currently such fees are set by statutory instrument subject to the negative resolution procedure.
433.Subsection (1)(b)inserts new subsections 119(6) and (7). This amendment ensures that the definition of “police authority” for the purposes of section 119 includes bodies such as the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and the other bodies included in new subsections 113B(10) and (11). Subsections (2) and (3) amend sections 120A and 124A of the Police Act 1997 in the same way. Subsection (2) also makes it clear that the amendments will be inserted into the different versions of section 120A of the 1997 Act that apply in England and Wales and in Scotland.
434.This section contains amendments to sections 120A and 126 of the Police Act 1997 in relation Scotland. Subsection (1) amends subsection 120A(5) to allow the Scottish Ministers to determine administratively the fees which are payable to police authorities for dealing with requests for information.
435.Subsection (2) amends section 126 by inserting 2 new subsections. New subsection (3) provides for references to the Secretary of State in Part 5 to be construed as references to the Scottish Ministers in the application of the provisions to Scotland. New subsection (4) disapplies subsection (3) in relation to the references to the Secretary of State contained in section 118(2A)(c) (data held by the Secretary of State in connection with keeping records of national insurance numbers) and section 124A(1) and (2) which deal with the notification of decisions about registration by Scottish Ministers to the Secretary of State.
436.These amendments extend the provisions of Schedule 35 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which in turn amended Part 5 of the Police Act 1997, to Northern Ireland. The extension of these provisions to Northern Ireland will provide the new Criminal Records Disclosure body to be established there with the same powers and flexibility as the Criminal Records Bureau in England and Wales.
437.This section permits the extension of Part 5 of the Police Act 1997 to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man by Order in Council.
438.This section amends section 2(1) of the Criminal Procedure (Attendance of Witnesses) Act 1965, section 97 and 97A of the Magistrates Courts Act 1980, paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 3 to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section 51A(1) of the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978. Under the law as it currently stands, the court must issue a summons if two conditions are met. First, if a person is likely to be able to give evidence likely to be material evidence, or produce any document or thing likely to be material evidence for the purpose of any criminal proceedings before the court. Second, if the person will not voluntarily attend as a witness or will not voluntarily produce the document or thing. This section alters this second condition so that the test for the issuing of a witness summons is instead that the court is satisfied that it is in the interests of justice to do so. This will allow a court to issue a witness summons in more situations and, specifically, earlier in the proceedings in order to pre-empt the likely non-attendance of a witness. It applies equally to both applications for a witness summons by the defence and the prosecution.
439.This section amends Section 25 of the Armed Forces Act 2001, which amended the Army Act 1955, the Air Force Act 1955 and the Naval Discipline Act 1957, so that the same conditions apply to the issue of a witness summons in courts martial as to their issue in the criminal courts, as amended by section 169.
440.This section gives effect to Schedule 15 which extends the provisions of the Private Security Industry Act (PSIA) 2001 to Scotland. It also adds the Security Industry Authority to the list of bodies in Schedule 2 to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002. This has the effect of enabling the Ombudsman to investigate complaints in relation to the devolved functions of the SIA.