Clause 32 - Powers of community support officers
Anti-social Behaviour Bill
11:15 am
Ms Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
I shall probably be entirely consistent in moving the amendment, because I shall doubtless use some of the phrases that I used during consideration of the Police Reform Bill.
I am concerned about community support officers being put in exceedingly difficult situations as a result of the amount of training that they are given. This is a probing amendment, and I am sure that the Minister will give me many examples to show how useful community support officers will be. Indeed, I am in the process of requesting community support officers in my constituency to deal with certain situations.
My concern, which was shared by Conservative Front-Bench spokesmen, is that a large, rowdy group of young people with lots of alcohol can present a difficult situation to deal with. We have had to deal with such situations in my constituency, and on one occasion in my leafy green constituency—it is not a city centre—young people were swinging from trees, yelling abuse at police officers and consuming vast quantities of vodka. Community support officers would not have been the right people to deal with that situation.
I seek assurances from the Minister about appropriate deployment depending on the situation. I hope that other Members will share my concern that people with limited training should not be put into difficult situations.