Clause 3 - Conduct prohibited without a licence
Private Security Industry Bill [Lords]
5:30 pm
Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)
I am able to confirm that. Indeed, I had a meeting with the CBI, at an earlier stage, to discuss those issues. We had a full discussion about what we should do.
Before we have a detailed discussion of schedule 2, I want to make a general point about the major dilemma referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Mr. Miller). Ten or 15 years in the future, if one were to want to subvert organisations by selling security services in a criminal way, it will no longer be a matter of sorting out door stewards in respect of dealing with drugs, but a matter of security systems installed in major corporations. We must bear in mind that the evolution of such systems will be important. A difficult balance of judgment will have to be made about how we decide between competing issues. For that reason, in the case of IT security, we have asked the Department of Trade and Industry to discuss with the industry how it might move forward.
We have also given a specific responsibility to the authority to keep such matters under review and to come back with proposals that ensure that we have a flexible process. We have taken the right approach in the Bill, as my hon. Friend was generous enough to say during the debate on clause 1. In the light of my remarks and assurances, and the further assurances that I will give during debate on schedule 2, I hope that the Committee will agree that clause 3 should stand part of the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 3 ordered to stand part of the Bill.