Violent Crime Reduction Bill
10:00 am
Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Woking, Conservative)
Let me try to boil this down to a simple issue. It is about blame and fault. If we return to my amendment, which would say that
“the sale or supply of alcohol on the premises has not caused any nuisance ... or disorder”,
the word caused is rather interesting. Of course, I cannot object to anything that has been said about off-licences needing to play a big part and having to show responsibility; that is right. However, let us think about blame. Assume that a man aged 25 goes into an off-licence at any time of the day, buys a bottle of gin, goes to his flat round the corner, drinks the bottle of gin, and then goes out into the street and behaves outrageously. Can anybody tell me whether it was the sale of the bottle of gin or the man’s criminal instincts that caused the problem? Where is the fault? That is an important aspect of the debate.