Clause 12 - Attendance at initial assessment
Drugs Bill
10:45 am
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Chesham and Amersham, Conservative)
Leading naturally on from clause 11, clause 12(2) states:
''The initial assessor must inform a police officer or a police support officer''.
The police support officer has now crept into the equation, and I want to know why. If we are to keep police officers in that role, it is inexplicable that the police support officer should suddenly be given a role. If the police support officer is included here, why could he not be included in the informing requirements of clause 11? That is my first question.
My second question is a qualitative one. I ask the Minister to speculate about the relationship between the assessor and the client, for the simple reason that the assessor has the burden of reporting a failure to attend the initial assessment or remain for its duration. It is very much an absolute clause. As we have already said, we are dealing with a group of chaotic people who may have personality problems. There may be conflict, and the session may be interrupted by a falling-out between the assessor and the client. The clause does not seem to make provision for that.
I presume that an assessor would have the latitude to halt an assessment, walk away from it, and suggest that it continues at another time, in another place, and perhaps even with another assessor. That is the point on which I need the Minister's help. What would happen if an assessor wished to change the arrangements, stop the procedure halfway through or make a practical arrangement? Suppose the assessor has to stop the assessment because something intervenes in his or her life. For example, what if a lady is assessing, and she gets a call and has to pick her child up from school because he or she has fallen over in the playground? What would happen in those instances, because the assessor may fail to inform the police? That is a series of questions about the absolute nature of the clause.