---

Violent Crime Reduction Bill

moved Amendment No. 31:"Page 7, line 3, leave out subsection (4) and insert—" ““(4)   Permission of the court is required for the making or hearing of an application in accordance with subsection (3).”” The noble Viscount said: This amendment ensures that it is the court and not the justices’ clerk that has to give permission for an application to be heard without notice. It is my understanding that the role of justices’ clerks is primarily an advisory one, along with some case management responsibilities. Given the potential risk of injustice for someone to be made subject to one of these orders in their absence and without notice, it seems more appropriate that this decision be taken by the magistrates themselves rather than it being delegated to the justices’ clerk. The purpose of the amendment is not to make any criticism of the role of justices’ clerks, but merely to guarantee that questions of this seriousness should be treated as judicial decisions, not as merely administrative ones. I beg to move.