Clause 29 - Dispersal of groups and removal of persons under 16 to their place of residence
Anti-social Behaviour Bill
9:10 am
Mr Matthew Green (Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
Welcome to the Chair this morning, Mr. Cran.
The Liberal Democrat amendment in the group works, as the Conservative spokesman said, in the opposite direction to the Conservative amendments. I suppose that the difference in our philosophies is emerging. The Conservative amendments would dramatically lower the threshold to be reached before the strong powers—we have perhaps overused the word ''draconian'' in this Committee—may be used. We believe that there should be large hurdle to be overcome before the powers can come into effect, but the Conservative amendments would enable the police to use the powers in almost any case that they can think of.
Our amendment is designed to probe the Government's thinking. It is about setting the threshold and would add the word ''particularly'', so that the powers could be used only if there was a ''particularly significant and persistent'' problem. The amendment is designed to elicit from the Minister the circumstances in which he envisages the powers being used and what test is meant by the phrase ''significant and persistent''.