Clause 62 - Community support officers etc
Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill
4:45 pm
Mr David Ruffley (Assistant Chief Whip, Whips; Bury St Edmunds, Conservative)
The Government are giving community support officers powers to issue notices. Those officers will receive special training or advice on the kind of offence that needs to be committed before a notice can be issued. I say that for one simple reason: I have been impressed by the briefings that all Committee members have received, from the Kennel Club and elsewhere, on the skill and care with which the dog warden community carries out its duties under the existing regime. It might be at the back of their mind that community support officers will be brought in to police a new regime, assuming that the Bill is passed in the form that the Ministers wish. Those CSOs may or may not be skilled in ways of interpreting dog behaviour, and in interpreting whether a dog is offending or not.
Working out whether an offence is being committed may seem to be common sense, but it is important to have the Minister's assurance that community support officers will receive the requisite degree of training and advice before they take on the new role of issuing notices.