Clause 1 - Offences leading to penalties on the spot
Criminal Justice and Police Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister is so impatient, although his question is perfectly proper. I was about to explain precisely that. He knows from our previous exchanges that I always try to give direct answers and not to fudge the issues. He accepts that, even if the answers I give are ones with which he does not always agree.
I will go down the list by category. We think that
``Being drunk in a highway other public place or licensed premises''.
should not be included. Similarly,
``Trespassing on the railway . . . Throwing stones etc at trains or other things on railways''
``Disorderly behaviour while drunk in a public place''
should not be included. I shall return to the issue of criminal damage, which we discussed previously. To continue, the listed offences of
``Threatening, abusive or insulting words or disorderly behaviour''
``Consumption of alcohol in designated public place''
should not be included. The reasons that we think that they ought not to be included on that list are that they are subjective and that they will give rise to big practical problems. For example, giving a fixed penalty notice to a person who is ``drunk in a highway'' lends itself to the possibility of that person either not knowing or not remembering that he has received it, as well as to all sorts of practical questions about whether the notice has been served and properly given to that person, and so on. Equally, the identity of the culprit in offences such as
``Throwing fireworks in a thoroughfare''
may be unclear, so we would not include such offences on the list.
Three further offences:
``Knowingly giving a false alarm to a fire brigade . . . Wasting police time or giving false report''—