Clause 19 - Closure of certain licensed premises due todisorder or disturbance
Criminal Justice and Police Bill
5:15 pm
Mr Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
When the Government consulted on licensing reform in their White Paper, their proposal was much more tightly drawn. It would be a mistake to go with such a wide provision, particularly against a background in which officers will be exempt from liability. We want provisions that can close public houses that are rowdy or likely to be rowdy or where, as the Minister said in his letter to the BLRA,
``a fight between drunk and disorderly customers spills out onto the street outside the pub and requires attendance, the fight is directly connected with the pub and would not be happening if the pub were not open and serving alcohol in the immediate vicinity.''
I would go along with that, but the Minister is proposing something far wider. He is saying that disorder that an officer believes is likely in the vicinity does not have to be related to the premises. The Minister is proposing a far wider provision than the one with which he told the industry that he was trying to deal. In his letter, he referred to the immediate vicinity, but is now proposing the vicinity; where the incident had to be directly related to the pub, it does not now have to be connected in any way.