Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 8, line 48, to delete "A person is in material breach of his or her" and substitute "The clinical director may revoke a".

This amendment relates to the provision in section 7 that inserts new sections 13A and 13B in the 2006 Act. As drafted, section 13B(2) states, "A person is in material breach of his or her conditional discharge order where the clinical director on reasonable grounds believes that the person is in breach of one or more conditions of his or her conditional discharge". The purpose of the amendment is to change the somewhat Alice in Wonderland-like quality the Labour Party believes is attached to the current wording which is reminiscent of Lord Atkin's judgment in Liversidge v. Anderson. It states a person is in material breach where the clinical director believes a person is in material breach. Instead, the amendment proposes the deletion of the words, "A person is in material breach of his or her" and their substitution with, "The clinical director may revoke a". The amended provision, therefore, would read, "The clinical director may revoke a conditional discharge order where the clinical director on reasonable grounds believes that the person is in breach". Otherwise, this would be a meaningless section because it would simply repeat the test. Consequently, the Labour Party considers that the amendment would tighten the drafting somewhat. I await the Minister of State's response to this proposal. It would not result in a material change to the subsection.