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These notes refer to the Lords Amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill, as brought from the House of Lords on 11 November 2009 [Bill 168]
POLICING AND CRIME BILL
EXPLANATORY NOTES ON LORDS AMENDMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. These explanatory notes relate to the Lords Amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill, as brought from the House of Lords on 11 November 2009. They have been prepared by the Home Office in order to assist the reader of the Bill and the Lords Amendments and to help inform debate on the Lords Amendments. They do not form part of the Bill and have not been endorsed by Parliament.
2. These notes, like the Lords Amendments themselves, refer to HL Bill 48, the Bill as first printed for the Lords.
3. These notes need to be read in conjunction with the Lords Amendments and the text of the Bill. They are not, and are not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the effect of the Lords Amendments.
COMMENTARY ON LORDS AMENDMENTS
Lords Amendment 1
4. Lords Amendment 1 would insert a new clause amending section 29 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (‘RIPA’). Section 29(2)(c) of RIPA provides that arrangements must exist for a covert human intelligence source’s case which satisfy the requirements of subsection (5). Under section 29(5) and (9), these arrangements cannot be divided between different public authorities unless the activities of the covert human intelligence source are for the benefit of each of those public authorities. This new clause would require arrangements equivalent to those in section 29(5) of RIPA to be in force in relation to sources of police collaborative units comprising two or more police forces. Under this new clause, these equivalent arrangements could be divided between the police forces in a collaborative unit provided the chief officers of the forces in question had made a collaboration agreement permitting this to happen. This new clause applies either to police forces in England and Wales which have made a collaboration agreement to this effect under section 23(1) of the Police Act 1996, or to Scottish police forces which have made a collaboration agreement to this effect under section 12 of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967.
Bill 168—EN 54/4
Lords Amendments 2 to 5
5. Lords Amendments 2 to 5 are minor and technical amendments. Under section 46 of RIPA, where all of the conduct authorised is likely to take place in Scotland, Scottish police forces can only grant or renew an authorisation under Part II of RIPA (rather than under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000) if the authorisation is granted or renewed in the interests of national security or the economic well-being of the UK. Clause 8 in this Bill replicated this restriction unnecessarily. These amendments would remove this replication.
Lords Amendments 6 to 10
6. These amendments are intended to clarify the scope of the offence created by clause 13. They introduce the term ‘exploitative conduct’ which for the purposes of this clause means any form of deception or the use of force, threats (whether or not relating to violence) or any other form of coercion. Following these amendments, the new offence would be to pay or promise to pay for sex with someone who had been subject to exploitative conduct of a kind likely to induce or encourage that person to provide the sexual services for which payment had been made or promised.
Lords Amendments 11 to 15
7. Amendments 11 to 15 would mirror the changes made by Lords Amendments 6 to 10 for clause 14 for Northern Ireland.
Lords Amendments 16 to 20, 22, 23, 60 and 63
8. These amendments would change the name of the category of sex establishment inserted into Schedule 3 to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 by clause 26 from ‘sex encounter venue’ to ‘sexual entertainment venue’.
Lords Amendments 21, 24, 61 and 62
9. These are minor technical amendments. Amendments 21 and 24 would ensure that, if premises hold a sex establishment licence in order to operate as a sexual entertainment venue, they would be deemed to be a sexual entertainment venue even if the premises are operating within the exemption set out in new paragraph 2A(3)(b) of Schedule 3 to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 (to be inserted by clause 26). Such premises would be able to have their licence cancelled if the licence holder writes to the appropriate authority requesting the same.
10. Amendments 61 and 62 would ensure that relevant entertainment provided at venues which are deemed to be sexual entertainment venues is not to be regarded as the provision of regulated entertainment as defined by the Licensing Act 2003. This will mean that no premises licence, club certificate or temporary events notice is required in relation to relevant entertainment at such venues under the Licensing Act 2003. Such entertainment will instead be regulated under Schedule 3 to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. In such circumstances, the performance of live music or the playing of recorded music that is integral to the
provision of the relevant entertainment is not to be regarded as regulated entertainment.
Lords Amendment 25
11. This amendment would remove clause 27 (increase in penalty for offence of consuming alcohol in a designated public place) from the Bill.
Lords Amendments 26 and 27
12. Amendments 26 and 27 would allow the police to take a person home or to a place of safety after issuing them with a direction to leave under section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 if they reasonably suspect that the person is under 16.
Lords Amendments 28, 55, 59, 65, 67 and 69 to 86
13. Amendments 55 and 59 would remove the power for licensing authorities to impose general licensing conditions on two or more licensed premises or club premises at once under Schedule 4. (The powers in Schedule 4 for the Secretary of State to impose mandatory licensing conditions on licensed premises and club premises are unaffected.) Amendments 28, 65, 67 and 69 to 86 are consequential amendments to clause 32 and Schedule 7 to remove references to the general licensing conditions.
Lords Amendment 29
14. This amendment would insert a new clause which amends sections 13 and 69 of the Licensing Act 2003 to allow members of the licensing authority to act as interested parties. This would allow them to make representations to object to licence applications or to call for a licensing review, powers which under the Licensing Act 2003 are only exercisable by interested parties or responsible authorities.
Lords Amendments 30 to 33, 35 and 37
15. Lords Amendments 30, 33 and 35 would limit the duration of injunctions under Part 4 of the Bill (“gang injunctions”) to a maximum period of two years. These amendments would work in conjunction with Amendments 31, 32 and 37, which would provide for a mandatory annual review where an injunction lasts for more than one year.
Lords Amendment 34
16. Lords Amendment 34 is a technical amendment which would ensure that the power to grant an interim injunction is available in the unlikely event that proceedings on an application made without notice are adjourned on a second or subsequent occasion without the respondent having been notified of the hearing.
Lords Amendment 36
17. Lords Amendment 36 would ensure that, where an application is made to vary an injunction, the courts have power to add a new prohibition or requirement or to
extend the duration of an existing prohibition or requirement (subject to the overall time limit of 2 years).
Lords Amendment 38
18. Amendment 38 would insert a new subsection (2A) into clause 46. This would require the Secretary of State to consult the Lord Chief Justice and any other persons he considers appropriate prior to issuing or revising guidance on gang injunctions.
Lords Amendment 39
19. Amendment 39 would insert a new clause which would impose a duty on the Secretary of State to review the operation of the gang injunction provisions and to publish a report of that review. The new clause would require the report to be published within three years of the commencement of the provisions, and be laid before Parliament.
Lords Amendments 40 to 42
20. Lords Amendments 40 to 42 would remove clauses 96 to 98 (provisions relating to the retention and destruction of samples) from the Bill.
Lords Amendments 43, 45 and 88
21. These amendments would remove the requirement for a constable, who wishes to obtain a warrant under section 23(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to enter and search premises, to be acting for the police area within which the premises are situated. This would enable those police officers working for the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency and the Serious Organised Crime Agency to rely on these powers.
Lords Amendment 44
22. Lords Amendment 44 would correct a minor inconsistency in the commencement powers in relation to clause 100. Originally, this clause was to be commenced by Treasury Order, but the corresponding entries in Part 9 of Schedule 8 to the Bill were to be commenced by the Secretary of State. The amendment will mean that both provisions are to be commenced by Treasury Order.
Lords Amendment 46
23. This amendment would impose an upper limit on the period during which the police can detain someone where the court has issued a warrant for the person’s arrest after they have breached an order made under clause 16 without reasonable excuse and ignored a court summons to appear at court. The upper limit would be 72 hours.
Lords Amendments 47 and 48
24. These amendments would introduce a third condition that must be satisfied before a court issues a closure order. For this condition to be met the court would need to be satisfied that before issuing a closure notice (which must be issued before a closure order can be applied for) the police took reasonable steps to identify any
person who resides on the premises or who has control of or responsibility for or an interest in the premises and gave a closure notice to them.
Lords Amendments 49 to 51
25. Amendment 50 would place a local authority, which has not resolved to adopt the new provisions for regulating lap dancing and other similar entertainment within one year of commencement, under a duty to consult local people as soon as reasonably practicable about whether it should make such a resolution. Amendments 49 and 51 are consequential on amendment 50 (although the provision inserted by amendment 51 will apply to references to the coming into force of clause 26 throughout the Schedule).
Lords Amendments 52, 53, 56 and 57
26. Amendments 52, 53, 56 and 57 would allow the mandatory licensing conditions to involve, or consist of, the exercise of discretion by any person, such as the police.
Lords Amendments 54 and 58
27. Amendments 54 and 58 would ensure that if any of the mandatory licensing conditions are subsequently removed (whether wholly or as part of an updating process) then, in the absence of explicit transitional or saving provisions to the contrary, they are also removed from individual premises licences and club premises certificates. Conditions previously overridden by those conditions by virtue of new section 19A(4)(b) or 73B(4)(b) will be revived.
Lords Amendments 64, 66 and 68
28. Amendments 64, 66 and 68 are necessary to take account of the coming into force of the Legislative Reform (Supervision of Alcohol Sales in Church and Village Halls &c.) Order 2009 (S.I. 2009/1724) since the Bill was introduced. The amendments would ensure that the new mandatory conditions imposed under new section 19A apply to community premises, unless the Secretary of State decides not to apply the conditions to these types of premises.
Lords Amendment 87
29. Lords Amendment 87 is a minor and technical amendment which would correct a typographical error in Section 185(5) of the Extradition Act 2003 which was made when that provision was amended by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
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