Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

I am most grateful to the Minister, whose sincerity I believe in. I have enjoyed working with her in the past and I hope that we can work on this together. I am also grateful to all noble Lords who spoke in support of the amendment and the other amendments in the group. I completely recognise the need for other strategies in conjunction with this. If we look just at the evidence from South Dakota, it is worth noting that it has an 80 per cent long-term sobriety rate. There is therefore something about using the unique teachable moments, which is what Professor Touquet at St Mary’s has been piloting and developing over the years in his A&E department, whereby you use the fact that the person has presented to get them to address all the problems that underlie alcohol-seeking behaviours. I also completely agree that the culture change is shocking. I was recently in a student’s room, because she was ill. A bottle of vodka was on her window sill, as was the case in the rooms of all her housemates. The birthday card by her bed from her best friend said, ““Looking forward to getting drunk together””. That is a complete change from the days when the Minister and I were students. I regret that the Minister feels that this amendment cannot be made to the Bill, because I would have dearly loved to have piloted this measure in Wales. Given that I have not discussed the amendment with the Welsh Assembly Government and Ministers, I did not feel that it was appropriate to raise it earlier in the debate, but I hope that we will be able to work on this. I have a glimmer of hope that we may be able to come back to something later during the passage of the Bill. I therefore beg leave to withdraw the amendment at this stage. Amendment 235 withdrawn. Amendment 236 not moved. Clauses 101 and 102 agreed. Clause 103 : Interpretation of Part 1 Clause 103 : Interpretation of Part 1 Amendment 237 not moved. Clause 103 agreed. Clause 104 : Licensing authorities as responsible authorities Amendment 237ZA Clause 104 : Licensing authorities as responsible authorities Amendment 237ZA Moved by