New Clause 7 - Firearms: international co-operation and general duty of the Secretary of State
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
3:45 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
I will deal with this quite briefly. [Interruption.] I hear some support for that from the hon. Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight). I am conscious that this is the last sitting of the Committee and I do not want to detain hon. Members terribly long. I have a little more to say about the next new clause, but again it should not take too long—to the pleasure, I am sure, of the hon. Member for South Dorset.
I mentioned earlier that one of the advantages of being a shadow Home Office Minister is that one is able to receive confidential briefings from people such as the head of the National Crime Squad and the head of the National Criminal Intelligence Service. Those briefings enable one to think quite carefully about some of the most serious types of violent crime and, particularly, about the importation of firearms. The Government have recognised the huge problem of the explosion of gun crime. The tragic deaths of two young women in a gang war—they were literally caught in the crossfire—led to the Home Secretary having what he called a gun summit. All kinds of promises were made about the crucial steps that the Government were taking.
The Bill is a useful opportunity. Clearly, the new clause is in order; otherwise, we would not have been allowed to table it and it would not have been selected for debate. It must fall under the long title of the Bill. We felt that there was no reason not to take the opportunity to add it to the Bill. It is a useful vehicle and reinforces the point that the Secretary of State should have that duty placed on him in relation to the import of firearms. I hope that the Minister will surprise us all on this last afternoon by standing up and saying that the Government entirely agree, and will accept the new clause. We wait to hear.