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Coroners and Justice Bill

I am grateful. I therefore turn to the two other amendments in this group. Amendments 191DB and 191DC would amend paragraphs 4 and 5 of Schedule 16 to ensure that enforcement must provide that, before a court makes a clamping order for a person’s motor vehicle, it must be satisfied that doing so would not cause substantial hardship to any person and that a motor vehicle is only owned by a person if he or she has a substantial interest in it. The Bill introduces the ability for a court to make an order to sell a person’s motor vehicle in order to pay the costs of legal representation. We have particular concerns about the ability for such an order to be made for motor vehicles, particularly where the person about whom the order has been made only has an interest in the motor vehicle. This could clearly impact not only on the property rights of the person concerned but also any co-owner of the motor vehicle. No provision has been made to set out the rights of any co-owner to object to such an order being made or to recover their interest in the vehicle. We suggest that that breaches the right to property in the European convention. It also fails to deal with a situation where the making of a clamping order would give rise to extreme hardship if either the owner of the vehicle or any other person should lose his or her only means of livelihood, and should impact not only on them but also on dependent family members. The courts should be able to refuse to make a clamping order if to do so would lead to substantial hardship, which should be left to the courts to determine on the facts of each case. An order should also not be made where the person in respect of whom the order is made only had a small interest in the motor vehicle. A substantial interest at least should be demonstrated. The rights of a co-owner ought to be considered by the courts in determining if substantial hardship would be suffered by any person. I beg to move.