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)
In the Government's view, CSOs should have the power to detain with reasonable force. We believe that that power should be exercised only by someone who is directly employed by the police service—hence the full package for CSOs. For accredited community safety officers who are employed not by the police service but by local authorities or others, which we discussed earlier, a more limited range of powers was always appropriate, as they are not directly employed by the police service. That matter was discussed in another place. We have taken a realistic view of the situation, and we have secured by far the largest part of what we wanted, because there will be a legal right to require a name and address, and possible consequences if someone refuses to do supply that information. That is why we have introduced the amendments in this way.