Clause 3 - Conduct prohibited without a licence
Private Security Industry Bill [Lords]
5:30 pm
Mr Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston, Labour)
My whole point in rising was to say that I am not convinced one way or the other. I think that there are merits in both cases. It is a technical area, and we must not end up with a Bill that is proscriptive and damages the security aspects of businesses' IT provision. At the same time, when my hon. Friend the Minister introduced the Bill, it was made clear that it was targeted at scams that are at the other end of the spectrum: cowboy wheelclampers and the small-time security companies that have failed to meet the standards recognised by my friends in Geneva, the international union Uni, which has negotiated many international agreements about the provision of physical security.
Such distinctions get more and more blurred as time goes on. It will be an interesting challenge for those folk who are not actually here to come up with the right balance. My instinct is that the CBI has an important point but, equally, there are merits in the alternative argument. The Committee should take the issue seriously, and take time over it. Any decision that we take will have important ramifications.