Clause 4 - Variation or discharge of orders
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
5:00 pm
Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Woking, Conservative)
Amendment No. 19 deals with the important issue of a variation or discharge of a drinking banning order. Indeed, the clause is headed ''Variation or discharge of orders under section 2 or 3''. The purpose of my amendment—and amendment No. 183 is along similar lines, to some extent, referring as it does to the court's being
''satisfied that there has been a change in circumstances''—
is to tease out the Minister's further thoughts on the issue of variation and discharge. Under subsection (6), a drinking banning order cannot be discharged less than halfway through. I am not entirely sure that that is appropriate. There should be more flexibility about discharge, hence my amendment No. 183.
What about variation? It seems that under the Bill anyone can apply for a variation of the order at any stage. That is an interesting situation, Mr. Forth. If you or I are made subject to a drinking banning order on a Monday—it may perhaps be a two-year order—what are we to do about it? Under the Bill, we must wait a year before any application can be made to discharge it. We understand that, but would not it be possible under the Bill for us to return to court on Tuesday to make a variation application?
If I am wrong, the Minister will tell me, but if I am right that makes a mockery of the view that the order cannot be discharged; it could be varied. That may give a potential defendant—or more probably a respondent, in civil proceedings—the opportunity to appear almost weekly, without ban, on a whim, to apply again and again for variations of the order. The number of possibilities is immense. Can the Minister explain?