Clause 8 - Licences to engage in licensable conduct
Private Security Industry Bill [Lords]
2:45 pm
Mr Bruce George (Walsall South, Labour)
One is to subject companies to compulsory registration and approval, with standards laid down to which they must adhere. Others are that in-house security should be included along with contract security, and that the inspectorate should be independent. Those provisions are not in the Bill. There is an option in relation to the regulatory authority for inclusion in the Bill eventually, but the next Parliament will be overloaded with considering statutory instruments that are 15 ft wide. I hope that secondary legislation can achieve the purpose properly.
I am not prepared to wage the battle any longer. I note the irony of the Conservative party joining me in promoting the cause of the low-paid in the industry against a Government who are preoccupied with raising living standards. Life is filled with irony. I hope that when the Minister goes to sleep tonight, he will recall that irony. When we consider the Bill at a later stage, I hope that he will have had a Pauline conversion. Reluctantly, and without the slightest enthusiasm, I am convinced that I am right and that, as usual, the Home Office is wrong. The amendment would have been sufficient because it would have provided an option whereby the relevant authority could be the company or the individual.
Rejecting the amendment is a clear statement that the company pays, and the Minister's exhortation can be read in Hansard. I suspect that not all the rogue companies or poor companies read more than The Sun. They certainly will not read Hansard or the record of this Committee's deliberations. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 8 ordered to stand part of the Bill.