PHILLIPS... pleased at the consensus reached

Dr Peter Phillips on Wednesday welcomed the agreement between the government and opposition on proposals for the Fingerprint (Amendment) Act contained in a report from the joint select committee which has been meeting since May 2003.

Obviously relieved at the conclusion of the discussions, Dr Phillips, the house leader and minister of national security, said he believed the committee had arrived at a much improved bill which demanded unanimity in Parliament.
The report of the committee is to be tabled in the House of Representatives shortly.

"It is really a manifestation of the true import of the select committee process," said Phillips.

Opposition spokesman on national security Derrick Smith said that the concerns of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members of the committee had been allayed by the regulations.

Opposition member Senator Arthur Williams suggested that the drafting of the regulations, at the same time as the bill, had helped the process. He recommended that the formula be followed.

Among the concerns raised by the opposition was that no juvenile should be fingerprinted and that there should be no fingerprinting at the Family Court.

The JLP suggested that the considerations for juveniles should be included in separate legislation.

Government members objected to having a separate law for juveniles, but special provisions have been included to protect them.

The Government agreed with the Opposition's proposal for a warning to be included, in both the Act and the regulations, advising persons in custody of their rights, including not consenting to being fingerprinted or photographed.

The committee also agreed that fingerprint forms and photographs should be destroyed after three months, and that the accused and his/her legal representative should be present when the documents are being destroyed. They also agreed that photographs and fingerprints taken in accordance with the Act shall be admissible in evidence, "subject to the rules of the court".

Other members of the committee were: Attorney-General Senator AJ Nicholson; minister of health John Junor; Dr Wykeham McNeil, MP; Derrick Kellier, MP; Delroy Chuck, MP; Dr Neil McGill, MP; Abe Dabdoub, MP; Senator Delano Franklyn; Senator Kern Spencer; Senator Dorothy Lightbourne; and Senator Keste Miller.

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