Clause 1 - Amendment of the Criminal Law Act 1967
Criminal Law (Amendment) (Householder Protection) Bill
9:30 am
Mr Patrick Mercer (Shadow Minister (Homeland Security), Home Affairs; Newark, Conservative)
I bring this point to the Minister’s attention not as a criticism, but merely to help. I recently visited the police station in Dewsbury, which may be known to him. I spoke to the chief inspector there, who had received no notification of the leaflets and did not know of their existence. There were none in his station and he was totally unaware of the Government’s efforts to explain how things stand in practice. Clearly, one of the main outlets for the leaflet in the town of Dewsbury was to be the police station, but there were no leaflets there and the police were completely—I use this term advisedly—ignorant of the subject. If we take Dewsbury as an example, I fail to see how people can be reassured by that.