Crime and Security Bill

I have previously described this Bill as the Christmas tree Bill to top all Christmas tree Bills, with more bits dangled off it than legislative branches to hold it all together. Indeed, with a Ways and Means resolution and an instruction motion having been required from the House even during Committee, the Government have been forced to do some significant building work even as the Bill progressed. Coming as it does on top of all the criminal justice Bills that the Government have introduced, this is a hotch-potch of a pre-election Bill, with a broad spread of unconnected measures cobbled together without giving any meaningful sense of an overarching strategy, purpose or direction on the part of the Government. It takes us from car-clamping to clamping down on mobile phones in prisons; from domestic violence to the non-domestic human impact of terrorist actions abroad; and from stop-and-search to stopping some licensed premises from opening in the small hours of the morning. For a Government who are rightly criticised for box-ticking, they have certainly excelled themselves in trying to tick the boxes of as many different interest groups as possible. In some instances, the significant problem for the Government is that they have not ticked the boxes when it comes to ensuring that the measures are proportionate and sustainable, and will make a difference. As a result of the speed with which the Bill has been put together, questions remain as to whether a number of the provisions will actually work. As we have heard this evening, the youth gang injunctions import a whole new concept—the concept of the civil courts having sanctions, including youth custody, which was previously reserved for the youth courts. That is intended to be tested not through legislation, but through a pilot. The interrelationship between domestic violence notices, domestic violence orders and other parallel criminal provisions appears potentially problematic, and the practical application of the measures appears to have been put off, again to allow for the proposed piloting of the measures. It has certainly been the hallmark of this Government that they appear to have more pilots than a number of airlines. Then, there is the question of what practical or meaningful difference other provisions will make. The mandatory parenting orders of children who breach their ASBOs would appear to apply only to a small handful of parents who have already been considered unsuitable for a parenting order. The new criminal offence of a person failing to take reasonable precautions to prevent a minor from having an air weapon is so subjective that it is difficult to see the Crown Prosecution Service making a number of cases out, however desirable that might be. The apparent new rights for councils to stop licensed premises opening from 3 am until 6 am overlooks the fact that most of the binge drinking leading to problems for the police and ambulance service in the small hours of the morning will have occurred much earlier. In any event, the hurdle that councils have to climb even to use the powers seems, as we have heard tonight, to make them virtually impossible to use. The Government have brought forward reasonable proposals, such as those on the bureaucracy behind the recording of stop and search and on regulating the unacceptable actions of car clampers, but Her Majesty's Opposition have been calling for such measures for some time. We have sought to be constructive in trying to improve the measures in the Bill. To be fair to the Minister and to his earlier comments, we recognise that the Government have been prepared to accept a number of the points that we have raised. I want to put on record my thanks for the support that I have received from my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell). He has proposed a number of constructive measures, notably on the definition of mobile equipment in prisons. We are pleased that the Government recognised and accepted that proposal through the amendments tabled tonight. We have sought to make improvements and to make changes such as ensuring that the police can take DNA samples from those in this country who have been convicted of offences overseas, improved the accountability of the DNA strategy board to Parliament, and clarified the requirements for the court in considering a gang injunction to receive a pre-sentence report from the youth offending team and for the court to give its reasons in open court should it believe that a sentence of detention is appropriate for a breach of those orders by young people. Despite those improvements, in our judgment the Bill needs further careful and close scrutiny. Despite our misgivings about the effectiveness and enforceability of a number of the provisions contained in the Bill, we would be prepared to let them pass, but the issue of principle on DNA retention remains. As the debate earlier showed, there are strong feelings in the House. We believe that the Government's proposals as set out in the Bill fail to strike the right balance between the rights of the individual and the collective right to protection from crime. We believe that the Government remain on the wrong side of the argument. We have set out our position on a workable solution to deal with that issue which protects the public and respects the concept of innocent until proven guilty. We believe that to be a pretty fundamental concept that should not be discarded lightly. Despite the Government's best efforts to bring forward cases to prove the contrary, they have not succeeded. The Bill has no chance of being considered fully by the other place and therefore can only become law through the wash-up process. It will therefore require co-operation if it is to have any chance of becoming law. Let me be clear: we will not allow the Bill to proceed in the other place with the Government's proposals in their current form. In our approach to this Bill, we have sought to move things forward and even at this stage the Government have the opportunity to adopt a similar approach on this issue. The Home Affairs Committee's report has produced a number of interesting recommendations on an all-party basis. It was interesting to note that the Chairman of that Committee, the right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz), talked about the need for consensus to try to move things forward on this issue, too. We believe that the Government should reflect on that point, as we will too, and in the spirit of wishing other provisions on compensation for the victims of overseas terrorism, on car clamping, on domestic violence and on other matters to succeed, we would be prepared to meet the Government and other Opposition parties to discuss a way forward on an all-party basis after tonight and to see whether agreement can be reached. We will do that on the basis that we expect the Government to move from their rigid, authoritarian, big brother-database stance. In the spirit of reaching such an agreement, and as a mark of good will, we are prepared to let the Bill pass tonight, but they should be in no doubt that if there is no movement from them—if they insist on maintaining the measures on DNA retention—we will not hesitate to prevent the Bill from making further progress. The Government would then, by their actions, have stopped other important measures that could do a great deal to protect the interests of our communities and our constituents, and that would be on their shoulders.