Clause 29 - Dispersal of groups and removal of persons under 16 to their place of residence
Anti-social Behaviour Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Matthew Green (Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
The clause contains some of the most draconian elements of the Bill and, unfortunately, seems to undermine some of the good work that the Government have done in supporting young people. After all, the Government set up the children and young people's unit and have supported several other initiatives. They deserve credit for taking the steps that they have. They had, until recently, the first ever Youth Minister. I hope that there will be a replacement as soon as possible—particularly because at the moment I have no one to shadow.
The amendments relate to the overall powers that are being given to the police. The clause has many possibilities in it. One can read it in numerous ways and come up with something that seems quite reasonable and something that seems outrageous, depending on which collection of ors and ands are stuck together.
For the Committee's sake, I will demonstrate. Most of us would be entirely happy that the police might be able to disperse a group when:
''any members of the public have been intimidated . . . as a result of the . . . behaviour of groups of two or more persons''
in a locality. None of us feel that there is anything particularly wrong with the idea of the police dispersing people whose behaviour is intimidating others.
However, the paragraph could also be read as referring to a situation in which
''any members of the public have been . . . alarmed . . . as a result of the presence . . . of groups of two or more persons''.
There are probably many circumstances in which people get alarmed by somebody's presence. To be flippant, I am sure that in certain Conservative marginal seats, they would get very alarmed by groups of two or more Liberal Democrat canvassers appearing on the street corner, but in all seriousness—[Interruption.] I knew that that was a dangerous thing to say. Hon. Members will not shut up now; they will chunter on for the next few minutes.