Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I thank noble Lords for their inputs. It is clear that all of us in the Committee understand the impact of this sort of behaviour in areas of our community. I must make it clear that we are not talking about occasional loud noise or annoyance; we are talking about excessive and persistent—that word was used by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham—anti-social behaviour amounting to significant and persistent disorder or persistent serious nuisance, which can have a devastating impact on neighbours and the wider community as well as on the perpetrator’s family and cohabiters. A multi-agency approach would have to have been taken first to tackle the nuisance behaviour, using the full range of support and enforcement measures available. I hope that that answers the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, to the extent that we would expect to see the use of, for example, acceptable behaviour contracts, parenting contracts, injunctions, ASBOs or community impact orders alongside offers of support before any closure is pursued. The premises closure provides the opportunity to encourage and cajole people who might not have been willing to accept assistance actually to do something and to take some help. We hope that we can improve them and put them in a position where they can return to their house after three months, having engaged with the various social services and the people with whom they need to engage to cure the things that are making them behave in that way. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, mentioned the impact of crack house closures. I disagree with him; those closures have proved very popular. Since their introduction, 722 premises have been closed. Cuckooing has been reported and we believe that premises closure orders will offer a mechanism to help vulnerable people who have become victims of it. The order will mean that the safe haven can be taken out of action. People have gone from crack houses to cause the trouble in those places that the noble Lord rightly mentioned. Vulnerable people can be offered the help and support that they need. That is how we hope to move forward on this. I can assure the Committee that the young and vulnerable will be a strong part of our considerations. Robust guidance will be given to practitioners and will have to be strictly adhered to. To place those requirements in the Bill risks making the process for making orders so complex that we would not get the benefit of them. I go back to my reference to mission command in the military, where you make what is required clear by guidance and leave some flexibility. Before issuing a closure notice, the police and local authorities are bound to act in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and will consider the needs of any vulnerable people and children, who will therefore be looked after. Premises closures, like existing crack house closures, will be used alongside support measures. They will provide an opportunity for local agencies to co-ordinate and offer support that those subject to the closure previously rejected. That is what we found in the past. It is in their interest as well as in the community’s interest. This approach of challenging and supporting is practised by the 53 family intervention projects launched by the Respect Task Force in April 2007. I therefore ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.