Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 177AA: 177AA: Clause 194, page 138, line 14, at end insert— ““( ) In section 7 (sale of tobacco, etc. to persons under 16) after subsection (1A) insert— ““(1B) If an offence under subsection (1) has been committed on any premises, the person having management functions in respect of those premises must be notified within 14 days.”””” The noble Lord said: In moving the amendment I shall speak also to Amendment No. 177AF. We have moved on to Clause 194, and—in this rather extraordinary Bill—from sex offenders to tobacco sales. I think that the noble Lord will be familiar with the three groups of amendments which I shall deal with because they were discussed in another place. The British Retail Consortium and the Association of Convenience Stores have also been in touch with the department to put their concerns to it. They have also briefed me and suggested the amendments which I now raise. Clause 194 brings in new powers to take away the licence to sell tobacco from shops if they persistently sell it to underage people or commit other tobacco offences. We have no objection to that. These probing amendments are designed to tone down the strength of the proposals and bring in some safeguards. Currently, when the offender has been convicted of a tobacco offence, he can have his licence taken away if he has also committed other tobacco offences within the previous two years; that is, if this is the third offence in two years. The first group of amendments, Amendments Nos. 177AA and 177AF, suggest that it would be fairer to the individual accused of such offences if he could be notified after the first time that some such offence had been committed. We think it vital that the retailer or his staff are provided with the opportunity to address the breakdown in their internal procedures that has allowed the sale of tobacco to underage people. It is bad practice and possibly counterproductive to allow the situation to develop whereby an enforcement officer could withhold information about an offence having taken place so as to pursue a prosecution and a sanction later. In the interests of natural justice it would be fairer to the individual if he was told, ““We believe that you have been selling tobacco inappropriately to young people””—or whatever the relevant wording is for such a tobacco offence—““Tighten up your procedures so that it does not happen again. I have to warn you that if it does happen again, or twice more, on the basis of ‘three strikes and you’re out’, you might lose your licence to sell tobacco””. I hope that the noble Lord finds that a fairly simple concept to grasp. I beg to move.