Clause 43 - Extension to older children
Criminal Justice and Police Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is right. What he said reinforces how misleading the Government's spin has been on the matter, as it has been on so many other subjects. In March 1999, the Home Secretary told the Association of Local Government and the Metropolitan police that the Government's original proposals for child curfews would
``serve the dual purpose of protecting the community and young children.''
The proposals have patently failed and the Police Federation are reporting from forces thoughout the country that they have failed.
In June 1996, when Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister told the national press that child curfews were ``eminently sensible'' and that they would tackle
``young children wandering the streets at night, getting into trouble, growing into a life of criminality.''
He went round the country making such statements. However, when the Labour party came into power, it produced something that was bureaucratic and unworkable. Unfortunately, it has not learnt its lesson. I do not want to take up much time of the Committee. I just wanted to raise a matter of general principle. While we do not oppose the clause, we think that the Government are not learning lessons from the failure of their policies. While we shall return to the matter on Report, we will definitely formally reject the following clause.