The Senate will resume the committee stage of debate on the Bail (Amendment) Bill when it meets at Tower D, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, today.Last Tuesday's 15-hour debate on the legislation ended at 4.37am on Wednesday with clause one of the bill being approved.It seeks to prevent repeat offenders from being granted bail for four months for offences including rape, kidnapping and other violent crimes.It was passed in the House of Representatives two weeks ago with the specified government majority but in the Senate the Government does not have the required majority, so votes from at least four Independents were required as the six Opposition members have said they would not support it.Many of the Independents raised concerns about the legislation which was presented by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.
Co-ordinator of the Independent bench, Subhas Ramkhelawan, said the Government must make amendments to the bill with respect to the move to deny bail for the offences. Another Independent senator, Helen Drayton, said one of the most serious offences, murder, was already a non-bailable offence but that had not helped reduce the crime.Also in the Senate today the answers to several previously deferred questions on the order paper are expected to be provided, including one from Independent Senator David Small.He is asking Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Ramnarine to give the status of the re-organisation and transformation of the ministry.He is also being asked to give legislators the schedule for the completion of the restructuring of his ministry and the benefits that would accrue from it.The sitting begins at 1.30 pm.