Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 109A and the Question whether the clause shall stand part of the Bill. Amendment 109A seeks to introduce the concept of a breach of an acceptable behaviour contract to give effect to the Government’s intentions. The proposals outlined in Clause 30 were first trailed in the Government’s Youth Alcohol Action Plan published in June last year, which said that in the case of persistent public drinking by young people: ""In these cases, it is essential that any interventions should involve not only the young people themselves, but should also address the behaviour of parents who are not taking their responsibilities seriously"." I cannot disagree with that. The Government then said that they would be bringing forward legislation on persistent drinking, stating that they would, ""implement new legislation to make it an offence for under-18s to persistently possess alcohol in public places. Prosecution will require evidence of continued confiscation and failure to abide by an ABC. The penalties applied will depend on the nature of the behaviour in question, whilst taking into account the young person’s previous criminal record"." The wording is reflected equally in the regulatory impact assessment that sits alongside the clause. Despite that, the offence in Clause 30 does not seem to follow the stated policy objective in that it does not require a breach of an acceptable behaviour contract. It is a simple "three strikes and you’re out" test, so can the Minister explain whether there has been a change in approach? If not, is it intended that ACPO or the Home Office will issue guidance on the use of the powers, such that there will be a need for a breach of an acceptable behaviour contract before the offence is deemed to have been committed? Confiscation is a simplistic and inadequate response to the problem but at least an acceptable behaviour contract involves some co-operation with the child and his family and a more holistic approach to the problem. It is interesting that during the Recess we saw a report from the BMA, Under the Influence, about the damaging effects of alcohol marketing on young people. The solutions are all to do with marketing and not with simply removing the alcohol from the child on the street. We believe that this clause should be removed from the Bill because it introduces a new offence of persistently possessing alcohol in a public place. Those under the age of 18 can be prosecuted for this offence if they are caught with alcohol in a public place three times within a 12-month period. There is a maximum punishment of a level 2 fine, which is currently £500. We do not agree that this new offence is either necessary or helpful. For young people who are drinking at harmful levels and getting into trouble, the most effective way of supporting them will be, as I said in debates before the Recess, through voluntary access to education and treatment, rather than through drawing them into the criminal justice system. A large number of factors increase the risk of young people using alcohol at a harmful level, including bad example from their parents or siblings, poverty, bad housing, exclusion from school, low self-esteem, having previously been in trouble with the law, being at risk of or involved in child sexual exploitation and influence by peers. All those things are stressful to the child and may cause him to seek oblivion in alcohol; the same sort of stresses cause many adults to do the same. Addressing alcohol misuse requires an integrated approach that goes to the bottom of their problems and considers their individual needs. There is currently a lack of such services and I urge the Government to give priority to filling that gap. Clause 30 involves the criminalisation of children by creating an offence that does not even have a parallel with adults and which unfortunately blurs the distinction between offending and non-offending. The proposed offence is unprecedented in that it criminalises something that is not in itself criminal but becomes so if done a certain number of times. In this case it is not illegal if you do it once or even twice, but it is illegal if you do it three times. That is fundamentally flawed and an undesirable approach to creating offences. It would also bring about considerable difficulties of implementation. It will require the police to record every single incidence of a child in possession of alcohol in a public place just in case they do it again, and again within the period. I draw your Lordships’ attention to the phrase, "without reasonable excuse", which is too broad and potentially very subjective. Moreover, criminalising teenagers for possessing alcohol will fast-track more children into the criminal justice system, which is not the way to tackle underage drinking. While it is currently illegal to sell alcohol to those under 18, it is not an offence for under-18s to buy alcohol or to consume it in private. The clause sends very confused messages to children. If they are inappropriately gaining access to alcohol it should be dealt with by better enforcing restrictions on sale. When it places them in danger it could be dealt with under current child protection laws. This is far preferable to the counterproductive criminalisation of those we should be trying to protect. It is also unclear what constitutes a reasonable excuse. In the Public Bill Committee in the House of Commons on 12 February this year, the Government stated that what would constitute a reasonable excuse would be determined on a case-by-case basis by the police when enforcing the provision. We have recently seen on TV some examples of the somewhat questionable judgment of the police. This will mean that each police officer will have to use his or her subjective discretion on what is considered a reasonable excuse, making it unclear not only for teenagers, parents and the community as a whole how this offence will apply but making it difficult for the police themselves, to whom we should pay attention. This is an unworkable and undesirable provision that should be removed in its entirety from the Bill.