Question (this day) again proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

I remind the Committee that with this we are considering schedule 3.

It is a pleasure to resume proceedings with you in the Chair, Ms Bardell. I shall resist the temptation to start again for your benefit; I am sure you can look in the Official Report should you want to see the first part of my contribution.

I was talking about the inclusion of non-disclosure requirements in suspension orders, and I want to understand what the Minister thinks their function is. Is it to stop individuals who have had their domain name, IP address or website suspended or taken off them using it as a marketing tool or tool of notoriety? That would be a restriction on liberty and free speech, so I would be interested in the Government’s evidence base for that. Presumably, that must not apply to them talking to, say, their legal counsel, so what are the factors? There is no test in the Bill that a judge must apply.

Moving on to co-operation, since the internet by its nature is a global venture, we are glad that this is a four-nations provision, but there is some irregularity across the four nations, and I want to probe that with the Minister. Under paragraph 12 of schedule 3, in England and Wales, the “appropriate officers” who can make an application for an order are

“a constable…a National Crime Agency officer…an officer of Revenue and Customs…a member of staff of the Financial Conduct Authority, or…a person designated or appointed as an enforcement officer by the Gambling Commission under section 303 of the Gambling Act 2005”.

That seems quite a comprehensive list.

For Northern Ireland, the list is the same, except that it does not include the designated person from the Gambling Commission. Given the scourge of black-market gambling and the challenge it presents, is there not concern that it might be displaced to Northern Ireland? I wonder if the Minister might explain where he is up to with that. For Scotland, the list is just “a procurator fiscal”. That is a different approach. Presumably, it is the one favoured by the Scottish Government, but I hope the Minister might detail some of his discussions in this regard.

We know that many, if not most, of the sort of sites we have been discussing will be based outside the UK. The clause and the schedule give us a handy tool for UK-based ventures, but what more can the Minister tell us—he mentioned this a little in his opening speech—about his attempts to have some degree of harmony of regimes with our partners abroad, and what conversations does he think UK agencies should be having with their overseas counterparts to make sure that the powers that they have can be used to protect the British people?

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Ms Bardell, and I hope that we get to do so many more times during the Committee’s remaining sittings. I thank the shadow Minister for his considered contribution on clause 20 and schedule 3. I will turn first to his questions regarding the conditions set out in schedule 3, in particular at paragraph 4.

Condition 1 sets the threshold for this power to be available to investigative agencies such as the National Crime Agency and the police, meaning that those agencies cannot apply for an order unless the IP address or domain name is being used in serious crime. Condition 2, which operates separately and additively, requires a connection to the UK jurisdiction, and any one of the four limbs listed at paragraph 4(3) can apply; as the hon. Gentleman correctly identified, the word “or” is used at the end of paragraph 4(3)(c), making it clear that only one of the limbs (a) to (d) in condition 2 have to be met. If one is met, that is sufficient for condition 2 as a whole to be met. Those four limbs specify different ways in which the domain name or IP address might link to serious crime in the UK’s jurisdiction. I hope that that makes it clear how those conditions operate.

The hon. Gentleman also asked why the non-disclosure power was needed. Its purpose is simply to prevent the criminal behind the IP address or domain name from being tipped off, inadvertently or otherwise, that a law enforcement agency is looking into them. We would not want the criminals to know they were being looked at. That is why the provision is constructed in that way.

The hon. Gentleman asked about territorial applicability. The Gambling Commission is principally an England and Wales body, and has only very limited functions in Northern Ireland. However, typically, if a gambling service is made available on the internet, it will be available in Northern Ireland as much as in England and Wales. If we go after a service provider in relation to a breach in England and Wales, shutting down the domain or IP address will also have the effect of preventing it from being accessed elsewhere.

For Scotland, the definition of “appropriate officer” is limited to a procurator fiscal. That reflects the different arrangements in Scotland and our discussions so far with the Scottish Government. Generally speaking, we respect the view of the Scottish Government when it comes to the application of the law in Scotland—I am sure Ms Bardell would impartially endorse that from the Chair. Where the Bill touches on devolved matters in relation to the Scottish jurisdiction, we correspond with the Scottish Government and proceed in general—I would not say always—by mutual consent.

For the reasons that we have already discussed, we can all welcome the purpose of clause 20 and the accompanying schedule 3. I therefore commend them to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 20 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Schedule 3 agreed to.