Clause 2 - Orders on an application to magistrates' court
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
4:41 pm
Hazel Blears (Minister of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety), Home Office; Salford, Labour)
I can give the hon. Member for Woking the assurance that when a drinking banning order is made on conviction, the court will be able to make a drinking banning order in the absence of the defendant, because it will proceed with the criminal charge in the defendant's absence. The Bill provides that the court must then consider whether to make a drinking banning order, so the matter could proceed in absence.
I am pleased that the courts increasingly want to proceed in the absence of defendants, because on some occasions, defendants have sought to string out proceedings for weeks and months with several absences. It is good practice for magistrates to proceed in that way.
In terms of free-standing applications, interim orders can be applied for on an ex parte basis in the absence of the person who is the subject of the order. The position about substantive applications that are not interim is not clear, so I shall undertake to clarify that aspect of the legislation for the hon. Gentleman, and I shall return to it.
I have previously explained to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green that the alcohol harm reduction strategy has a range of work streams. Some are being led by the Department of Health around sensible drinking messages, education and ensuring that young people in particular know what they are drinking, how many units they are drinking, and what effect that can have on their health.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is involved in town centre management, and in the consideration of how different premises can be better managed. This legislation is about drinking banning orders and ensuring that the police have the necessary enforcement powers to make a difference to alcohol misuse. Our strategy is always good enforcement; it is also support, education and campaigning. They are not mutually exclusive, and we must ensure that we do both.
Although it is sometimes easier and more comfortable to do the education and health work, it is crucial to protect the decent law-abiding majority. We are also prepared to enforce where necessary and to use the powers that the police have asked us to introduce, so that they can take action on the streets to ensure that alcohol does not continue to blight people's lives.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 2 ordered to stand part of the Bill.