Police (Complaints and Conduct) Bill (HL) : report, 8th report of session 2012-13

This Bill published in November 2012 and is to be fast tracked through Parliament.

It strengthens the powers of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in two respects.

Firstly that serving officers are to attend for interview when they are a witness in an IPCC investigation, failure to comply would mean that they will become the subject of misconduct proceedings. Secondly, the IPCC is empowered in exceptional circumstances to investigate a matter that had previously been investigated by its predecessor body, the Police Complaints Authority.

These powers are said to be necessary to enable the IPCC to investigate more fully matters arising from the recently published report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

The Committee notes however these will be permanent and general powers.This bill is the sixth to be fast tracked since the Committee's 2009 fast track legislation report and is qualitatively different from the previous five.

The previous five bills needed to remedy a defect suddenly come to light; perceived to be a necessary response to a court decision or to deal with a genuine emergency.

This bill fits none of these categories. The limitations in IPCC's powers have not suddenly come to light in fact the IPCC has been arguing for some time its powers need to be strengthened.

The bill merits careful deliberation and scrutiny in Parliament.

The Committee recommends as a general principle and for future reference that fast track legislation should not be used for legal issues known about for some time.

The Committee also recommends that fast track legislation is made available to Parliament's legislative scrutiny committees at the earliest possible opportunity, even at draft stage.