Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 177AB: 177AB: Clause 194, page 138, line 32, leave out ““one year”” and insert ““3 months”” The noble Lord said: I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 177AC to 177AE. These amendments relate to the second point that I wanted to make about dealing with the sale of tobacco, which is the length of the reference period and the length of the ban. First, on the length of the reference period—three offences over two years—I understand that in broadly similar legislation relating to the sale of alcohol the reference period is not two years but three months. It seems only fair that the same rules should apply to both. I should be interested to hear what the Minister has to say about that. Similarly, on the length of the ban, one year is a heavy sentence, especially for some of the smaller shops, a large proportion of whose turnover will be from the sale of tobacco. It may be helpful to give the figure that I have from the British Retail Consortium and the Association of Convenience Stores, because the noble Lord, Lord Graham, mentioned it. On average, 22.3 per cent of the turnover of such stores can be made up of tobacco sales, so this sanction would be a hefty one to impose on them. I add one other, purely personal, argument, although I do not suppose that it will receive much support from the noble Lord. It is perfectly legal to smoke tobacco, but he is also imposing an inconvenience on the smoker himself, who may want to buy from a particular store that has lost its licence. To impose the sanction on that store for a year rather than three months seems to be rather overdoing it. I beg to move.