Policing and Crime Bill

If the hon. Gentleman does not mind, I shall continue. Firearms usage in the city centre dropped from eight incidents in July 2007 to one in September 2007, but again, after the injunctions were removed firearms usage increased, leading to a peak of nine incidents in May 2008. We thought that that evidence demonstrated that the injunctions had made an impact in respect of over-18s and that, given the fact that the courts had said that Birmingham had exceeded its powers, we ought to bring something forward to enable this approach to be used across the country. I am not a lawyer, but lawyers tell me that there is an issue to address about using civil injunctions for under-18s and that it arises from the inability, in most cases, to enforce any breach. As that would be a civil contempt of court, one cannot imprison under-18s for it, and somebody has to be able to pay a fine in a legal way, and not many of those who would be subject to one of these injunctions would. I have said that the Home Office is looking to see how it can introduce similar legislation to deal with the under-18s issue in due course, and we will certainly try to do that. The right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green and the hon. Member for Hornchurch asked about definitions. We have included a definition of a "gang" in the Bill, but it will need to be debated. I am sure that as it is debated, as the Bill goes through Parliament, we will be able to improve it still further, but we have started the process and I hope that we can end up with something that we would all want. We are looking, as we said we would, at putting guidance before the House to ensure that people are properly informed about the use of these injunctions, and we have widened the number of people who will be consulted on whether or not the injunctions are used. I agree absolutely with those who say that gangs are a major problem in our society in some parts of our cities. These injunctions will be a useful tool with which the police and local authorities will be able to combat some of the most serious and damaging individuals in our society and—