Baroness Northover (LD)

My Lords, I am delighted to have the support of the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, on my earlier amendment on the communications strategy, and that she has come around to my point of view on this. It clearly is vital that we have an excellent, proactive communication strategy in relation to this new policy, as I argued on the first group. These amendments seek to ensure that penalties for offences are fair and proportionate. I am very sympathetic to Amendment 60 from the noble Lord, Lord Udny-Lister, which looks like a very useful attempt to take a stepped approach to fines; it seems a very reasonable way to go about this. I look forward to hearing what the Minister says about that, and why she feels, if she does, that it is not necessary or appropriate. We believe that Amendment 63 is not necessary, as the ability to give warnings already exists. On Amendment 17 on counterfeit products, I am delighted to return the compliment to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, who says that she does not like to have unnecessary new offences, by telling her that we understand that this is currently an offence under the Trade Marks Act and that offences under that Act are automatically lifestyle offences, meaning that a proceeds of crime application can be used to remove criminal earnings. Maybe the Minister can comment on these various amendments.