This is an important Bill, and I think everyone supports it in principle, because it is designed to ensure that those in local government who fall short of the behaviour expected of them in a civilised society are disqualified from being able to participate in local government. My problem with the Bill at the moment is that it is very selective. It deals only with sexual offences, and does not extend to other offences which I think are equally important, particularly in the context of local councillors who have responsibility for road safety, for example, and also for social services and dealing with the scourge of illegal drug taking.
New clause 1 contains the first such addition that I want to make. It accords very much with the strategy of the Bill, which was set out by the current Chancellor of the Exchequer when he was the Minister for local government. In his ministerial foreword to the response to the consultation on updating the disqualification criteria for councillors and mayors, published in October 2018, he wrote:
“The Government considers there should be consequences where councillors, mayors and London Assembly members fall short of the behaviour expected in an inclusive and tolerant society… Elected members play a crucial role in town halls across
the country, and are the foundations of local democracy. They are community champions, and have a leading role to play in building a better society for everyone.”
My view, reflected in new clause 1, is that councillors who fall below the standards expected in relation to drink and drug driving offences should be included in the category of those who are disqualified from being able to serve as councillors and mayors. I think that they fall four-square within the Government’s definition of having been convicted of behaviour which everyone in a right-minded society would say was intolerable. Why should people who are in that position be allowed to continue as councillors while other councillors who have been convicted of a different set of antisocial offences are excluded? That is the essence of new clause 1. If someone is convicted of driving or being in charge of a motor vehicle with excess alcohol or a controlled drug, they should not be able to hold office as an elected councillor in this country.
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That brings me to new clause 2, which seeks, similarly, to extend the provisions for disqualification to those who are convicted of offences contrary to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The new clause is particularly topical, because it fits in with the “10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives”, which Her Majesty’s Government published in December 2021. As Members may know, that contained a foreword from no less a person than our Prime Minister. He said on page 4:
“And there will be no implicit tolerance of so-called recreational drug users.”
What better way is there of making an example of that and ensuring that the Prime Minister’s words are delivered into action than by amending the Bill through new clause 2 and making it clear that recreational drug users who are convicted would also find that they are ineligible to serve as elected councillors across this country, as champions of local people? If the Government do not accept new clause 2, it would seem that they are already stalling on actually delivering what is a clear objective of the 10-year drugs plan, “From harm to hope”.
I will refer briefly to some of the content of that strategy. Page 13 says:
“Legal consequences for this use”—
in other words, the use of illegal substances—
“have not been sufficiently applied across all levels of society…We will improve our methods for identifying recreational drug users and roll out a system of tougher penalties aimed at this.”
That is what the Government said. The strategy also states:
“For those who nevertheless choose to continue with their drug use, there will be swift, certain and meaningful consequences which will be felt more strongly than today and will escalate for those who continue to offend. Drugs are harmful to society and no one is above the law.”
Surely if those words are true—I certainly support every scintilla of them—we should ensure that we take every opportunity to add to the deterrents and punishments for those who are guilty of recreational and other drug use.
We understand that recreational drug use is treated by some people in our society as relatively unimportant in terms of compliance with the criminal law but the criminal law, under the rule of law, should apply to all. In chapter 4, on page 45, the strategy states:
“Adults using drugs socially often live relatively typical and otherwise healthy lives and may not recognise their role in fuelling the drugs trade or influencing and damaging the behaviour of others, including children. They may also feel that they are not at risk of experiencing any consequences themselves from their drug use. This should not be the case.”
And so say—or so should say—all of us.
At page 57, the Government say:
“Prevention of substance use is a key element of the government’s ambition to reduce the demand for drugs.”
What is also made clear in that document is that both local and national Government are actively involved together in the drugs strategy. It says, under the heading “Local outcomes frameworks”, on page 60:
“For this to succeed, there needs to be alignment between national outcome expectations and local delivery.”
Who are the people who are involved in local delivery? None other than local councillors. So can we tolerate a situation in which local councillors may themselves have been convicted of offences against the Misuse of Drugs Act, in complete defiance of the Government’s strategy, which I think has universal support across the country? That is the essence of new clause 2.
It might be said that we cannot amend the Bill because we have not yet consulted on these issues. In my view, that would be a very technical defence and would not go to, if I can use the expression, the substance of the concerns that I am expressing. The Government did consult on this measure, as I have said, in 2017, with the results of that consultation being published in 2018. I have known my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) for many years, from when we worked together on Wandsworth council and in various other roles, and I very much support the Bill and taking up the proposals from the Government. But what I do not understand is why a subject on which there was consultation—the issue of antisocial behaviour—has been omitted from this Bill.
New clause 3 is designed to add to the Bill the provisions that were originally the subject of consultation in 2017.
Question 3 in that document said:
“Do you agree that an individual who has been issued with a Civil Injunction (made under section 1 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014) or a Criminal Behaviour Order (made under section 22 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014) should be prohibited from standing for election, or holding office, as a member of a local authority, mayor of a combined authority, member of the London Assembly or London Mayor?”
In introducing that, the Government suggested in the consultation paper that they were of the opinion that such people should be disqualified from holding office. In the response to the consultation, they say that 65% of respondents agreed with that proposal—the proposal to disqualify, for such behaviour, from being able to be a councillor, 22% were against and 12% of people did not know.
The Government, to give a flavour of the responses received, quoted, among others:
“We agree on the basis that the period of time for which they would be barred would end once they are no longer subject to the injunction or order”,
and
“it would not be considered acceptable for people to stand for or hold office where they have been issued with certain Civil Injunctions and Criminal Behaviour Orders”.
So the responses were very much in support of what was then the Government’s proposition. The Government themselves said:
“The Government considers that an individual who is subject to an anti-social behaviour sanction
that has been issued by the court,”—
a civil injunction made under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014—
“should be barred from standing for election…as a local authority member”.
The disqualification period would end when they were no longer subject to the injunction or the order. So not only did the Government consult on the issue and the responses support the measure, but the Government themselves supported the measure in 2018. By implication, I imagine the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was then the Minister with responsibility for local government, also supported it. I submit, with all modesty, that new clause 3 has support at the very highest levels of Government from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as we have not heard anything from him to suggest that he has changed his mind since 2018.
Why, then, is that provision not included in the Bill, which is, as I understand it, essentially a Government handout Bill? One can only surmise that the Government are now watering down their support for that proposition, which they consulted on in 2017, said they supported in 2018 and committed to try to get early legislation on at the same time. We have waited three years-plus to get to this stage. Now we are at that stage, why can we not accept new clause 3? The other amendments I have fit in with what I have just been saying.
Amendments 2 and 3 seek to leave out of the Bill measures that were also the subject of consultation and where consultees disapproved of the proposals. Indeed, in the consultation, the Government themselves said they did not want to include in the Bill issues relating to serious risk orders. Paragraph 15, on page 12 of the document issued in September 2017, states:
“The Government does not propose including another type of civil order, the Sexual Risk Order, as this person would not have been convicted or cautioned of a sexual offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and are not subject to notification requirements for registered sex offenders. A Sexual Risk Order does require the individual to notify to the police their name and their home address. A Sexual Risk Order can be sought by the police against an individual who has not been convicted, cautioned etc. of an offence under Schedule 3 or Schedule 5 of the 2003 Act but who is nevertheless thought to pose a risk of harm to the public in the UK and/or children or vulnerable adults abroad.”
The question posed in the consultation was:
“Do you agree that an individual who is subject to a Sexual Risk Order should not be prohibited from standing for election, or holding office”.
The result of the consultation was that the public agreed with the Government’s view in 2017 that the sexual risk order should not be extended to the provisions. What do we find now? We find that that provision, which the Government said should not be included, is now included in this Bill. I cannot understand why because it taints the Bill. It means it is not just confined to people who have been convicted before the criminal courts—it also deals with people who are effectively in receipt of civil penalties. It offends against the very principles to which I have just referred and which the Government thought in 2017 were a reason not to include these measures in the Bill.
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The respondents to the consultation agreed with the Government view at the time, but we now understand that the Government have changed their mind. Is that not extraordinary? Why is it that the Government are now changing their mind on the issue when they have already consulted on it and the majority of respondents to the consultation agreed with the proposition that risk orders should not disqualify people from being able to serve as a local government councillor in our country?
One can see quite a lot of anomalies in all this. At the beginning of the debate, Madam Deputy Speaker, you made a statement about Parliament’s role in the scrutiny of legislation. It is a pity that none of the people who were privileged to serve on the Bill Committee thought fit to get down to the detail of the Bill and its background and to test the Minister on the Government’s rationale for being so selective in their response to the consultation. I hope that today’s debate will give the Minister an opportunity to fill that gap. Had I served on the Bill Committee, I would have been able to raise these issues and table amendments in Committee, but all I can do now is raise them on Report and hope we will get some responses. Madam Deputy Speaker, you said that we can table amendments and new clauses with different objectives; the final group of amendments to which I shall speak are more probing amendments than amendments designed to highlight real shortcomings in the legislation.
Amendment 1 and the consequential amendment 4 are designed to restrict the legislation so that it does not apply to parish councils. I say that because of the tenor of the legislation and the remarks, supported by the Government, about the importance of councillors setting a good example. That applies in particular to what we call principal councils throughout the country, but I am not sure it applies in quite the same way to local parish councils and community councils.
On a practical level, how will it be easy for some parish councils, some of which are very small and do not have full-time clerks, or even part-time clerks with any qualifications, to police the proposals that are designed to apply to them? I ask because there is obviously no point in our having laws that cannot be properly enforced. We would not want to burden parish councils with new responsibilities that they find difficult to fulfil, particularly in respect of sexual misconduct orders. They are not convictions and the people to whom they apply are not on the sex offenders register, so it will be even more difficult to identify them.
We know from recent experience that it will be difficult. For example, the police and crime commissioner legislation prohibits someone from standing for office or being elected as a police and crime commissioner if they have been convicted of a drink-driving offence. In Wiltshire last year, a candidate who was “elected” as a police and crime commissioner had in fact fallen foul of the primary legislation because he had been convicted in the past. Even for a police and crime commissioner election, it was difficult for the authorities to establish whether the person standing in the election had already been convicted of drink-driving. That is even more the case when the offences are not criminal offences and have not been properly recorded. I hope that the Minister will be able to help us on that aspect as well.
This is an important Bill. On the one hand, it gives the House the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to maintaining the highest standards in public office, and on the other, it also ensures that we respect civil liberties and do not start condemning people for conduct that is not the subject of a criminal conviction or even a criminal charge. Many anomalies remain in the Bill and I hope that we will be able to resolve them in the time remaining for debate today.