Clause 44 - Powers of entry
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Phil Hope (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Corby, Labour/Co-operative)
To address amendments Nos. 132 to 137, it may be helpful to set out the aim of the clause, although I know that the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge has already done so. Its purpose is formally to authorise activities that the fire service undertakes for the public good, which might otherwise amount to trespass. It provides several safeguards so that a proper balance is struck between the rights of occupiers of dwellings and the public interest in ensuring that the causes of fires are investigated quickly and effectively.
Subsection (3) provides that an officer may not in exercising his powers of entry under subsection (1) demand admission as of right to premises that are occupied as a private dwelling without giving 24 hours' written notice to the occupier. The words ''as of right'' refer to the officer's powers under subsection (1), which makes amendment No. 132 unnecessary.
The term ''private'' is used to differentiate between private living accommodation, which a person should be able to occupy without undue interference, and common areas, to which others have access but form part of premises that might be considered to be dwellings. Those of us who have ever canvassed in flats with entry blocks know the difficulty of trying to gain
entry by pushing all the entry phone buttons, and that is why we want to ensure that fire officers are able to do so. Removal of ''private'' is therefore undesirable.