Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I am very grateful to the JCHR for raising these issues in such a strong way, and to the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, for elucidating that. We on these Benches feel that this clause is a considerable move away from what we understand to be our justice system. Over the past few years, we have had to make some exceptions because of terrorism, and we have introduced control orders. These injunctions are similar in effect to control orders, but are taken out on someone who is not a terrorist. I have heard the Minister say that they are to apply to serious gang members, but we have to bear in mind when passing this legislation that these injunctions would be imposed on the person before proof that anything had happened. There would have been no court case to deprive them of their liberty. Therefore, it is a very extreme step to take on fairly flimsy evidence. Having said that, we do not decry the seriousness of what happens between gangs, and when innocent members of the public are caught in that crossfire. It is extremely serious, but a number of aspects of the proposals within the clause worry us deeply. The idea that they will be applied to people under 18 is particularly serious. If the Government are minded to insist that the clause remains in the Bill, it should apply to adults, not children. We have already had an argument in this House as to whether children involved in prostitution should be regarded as victims or criminals, and we could have the same discussion about children who are regarded as gang members but then have an injunction served upon them. There are a number of issues here. Before we would even dream of passing legislation that moved us so far towards depriving members of the public of their liberty without any court case, we would have to have a very full debate. I hope that these amendments will be the start of that debate as we move through this clause.