Policing and Crime Bill

I shall come to the points that the right hon. Gentleman has made. He has given us some evidence in support of what the Government propose, but so far we have not been given such evidence by the Government. All that we have been given are anecdotal explanations based on the Birmingham cases. If there is robust evidence from overseas, I am surprised that the Government have not produced it in response to our report or our earlier correspondence with the Minister. The Minister told us that using the criminal law to deal with gang-related violence remained the preferred option. However, the Government considered it not advisable to make it a prerequisite for the Crown Prosecution Service to explain why it was impossible to charge an individual beforehand. The Minister said that the Government were clear that injunctions should not short-circuit the criminal justice process, but we were very concerned about the issue. In earlier reports, we have drawn attention to the unsustainability in the long term of resort to methods of control which are outside the criminal process, and which avoid the appropriate standards of fairness. Gang injunctions constitute another step in that direction. In our view, the civil law is an inappropriate tool to deal with what is effectively criminal behaviour. We are pleased to note the Government's commitment to use of the criminal law as the preferred option, but it worries us that the Bill does not make that explicit, and that there are no safeguards in the Bill to ensure that it occurs. In particular, there is no requirement for those seeking an injunction to demonstrate that criminal prosecution has been considered as an option first. We recommend in amendment 38 that the Bill be amended to impose an express duty, throughout the period during which the injunction has effect, to ensure that the question of criminal prosecution is reviewed and is kept under consideration when there is a reasonable prospect of successful prosecution of the subject of the injunction. We have raised a similar issue time and again in relation to control orders. It seems that once a control order has come into effect, little effort is made to prosecute those involved. I am particularly concerned about the impact of the Bill on children and young people, as amendment 39 makes clear. It is in this regard that I consider the Government's response to be weakest. We welcome the Government's commitment not to amend the Bill to cover children and young people explicitly. However, we do not agree with their contention that part 4 will not be applied to children or young people. We recommend that the Bill be amended to make that clear, and to set a minimum age limit of 18 for respondents.