Schedule 5 - Powers exercisable by accredited persons
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
12:30 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State (Police, Courts and Drugs), Home Office; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
This group of amendments relates to powers that are both appropriate for accredited persons and necessary to maximise their effectiveness. They deal with the power to require a name and address.
Government amendment No. 215 introduces a power to require a name and address for some offences, but it does not, as was mentioned earlier, reintroduce the power of detention that was deleted in another place. Opposition amendment No. 28 would delete the power to require the name and address of someone acting in an antisocial manner.
I shall explain the value of having the power to require a name and address, which we now propose without the power of detention. Denying accredited persons the power to require a name and address will hinder their effectiveness. Most obviously, the ability to require a name and address will enable the fixed penalty notice to be enforced. The ability to ask for a name and address in such circumstances may be enough to enable them to handle a low-level instance of disorder. In circumstances in which the power is ignored, as the hon. Member for Lewes said, there is no back-up legal power of detention. None the less, the power can help provide evidence for a future action, including an antisocial behaviour order, through the refusal to comply with the request to give a name and address.
The Bill contains significant safeguards to ensure that all the powers conferred on accredited persons are exercised appropriately. It is because we believe that the name and address provision is a key part of enforcement for accredited officers that we reintroduced it.
We listened to and took account of the mood in another place and discussions in Committee on powers of detention, and we have not introduced them. Without the back-up of the power of detention, in some circumstances the name and address will be refused. As I said, evidence of such refusal may help wardens and others to introduce further measures against offenders, including the use of antisocial behaviour orders. Amendment No. 216 is a consequential Government amendment.