Local Authorities (Alcohol Disorder Zones) Regulations 2008

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness and the noble Viscount, Lord Bridgeman, for their comments. The noble Baroness gave us a full flavour of her concerns. That is fair enough; it is why we have these debates. I know that there was a similarly robust response to the moving of the regulations in another place, and rightly so. We had a good debate on this when we passed the original legislation, which I quite enjoyed shepherding through the House. We then had a constructive engagement about ADZs, although I think that both parties opposite expressed some concerns. I am sure that I reflected at the time that we had to try to get the practicalities right. In fairness, the Merits Committee has, as it always does, done the House a service by highlighting some issues and concerns. We should be grateful to it for its comments, although noble Lords will gather from what I am about to say in response that we do not entirely agree with its conclusions. I ought to comment on the fact that the regulations were initially delayed and brought back after some drafting amendments. That was because there was some misdrafting and we wanted to get this absolutely right. In fairness, that raises the question whether we have the mechanism absolutely right. We think that we have, but if in the light of experience what is, after all, a new and groundbreaking policy is found to be wanting in some regards, we are flexible enough to come back to amend the regulations so that they work better. We do not anticipate that, but I say that because we have that degree of flexibility. On whether the regulations are unduly bureaucratic, in the terms of the Merits Committee report, the worry is understandable. It comes from the tiered approach that we have created, where you have first the proposition, then the action plan and then the full ADZ. In a sense, that approach is designed to remove bureaucracy, because if you do not need the action plan because remedial measures and steps have been taken by responsible businesses in the area, you do not have to proceed any further. If a local authority has an above-normal alcohol problem and sets out the steps that it plans to take, it is surely a good thing if those steps lead to a reduction in the problem without having to go to the full-blown ADZ process. The noble Baroness gave some examples of good practice around the country where local authorities and police forces have worked well together with partnerships to determine how to tackle local alcohol problems and what actions best work to resolve them. In many of these cases, the licensed trade takes positive steps to help to address the issues of concern. That is what we are asking local authorities to do. Police forces working with them in partnership will also be asked to do this. There should not, therefore, be any additional bureaucracy in that process. In the first instance, I think that only a few areas—perhaps half a dozen or so—will take up the full range of ADZ powers, having gone through the initial stages. That is because, as I have said several times, ADZs are a measure of last resort. The tools and powers available to the police will have worked, or the threat of an ADZ will have pushed those problem premises into taking action in their own self-interest. We will be more than happy to be flexible over these issues and we will probably want to report back to Parliament in 12 months or so on how the regulations work and on the operation of the ADZs. The noble Baroness referred to other elements of our toolkit. It is true to say that we have a wide-ranging kitbag at our disposal and local authorities are making good use of it. About 60 are already using different elements of the measures that are available in the Licensing Act 2003 and in other places to try to improve the management of premises and the general performance both of licensed premises and of localities. I take the point about business improvement districts having a potential impact. There is evidence that bids in city-centre areas can be useful in tackling issues such as this. However, one has to remember that a bid is an entirely voluntary process. The difference between a bid and the ADZ approach is that, if neither the voluntary approach nor the action plan has worked, there is a measure of last resort to force the issue and to make sure that measures are taken to tackle the problem. That is the big difference. Ultimately an ADZ can make licensed premises comply, whereas bids may be something the local authority considers as part of an action plan; they cannot be a substitute for making premises act in a collectively responsible manner.