Schedule 1 - Football banning orders and football-related consequential amendments
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
8:00 pm
Hazel Blears (Minister of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety), Home Office; Salford, Labour)
Amendments Nos. 107 and 109 will make provision for the Director of Public Prosecutions to authorise Crown prosecutors to make an application for a banning order on complaint. Our primary aim is to ensure that Crown prosecutors with specialist knowledge of football disorder legislation and of the judicial process in a host country can present applications in circumstances when the evidence of misbehaviour has been gathered overseas.
At present, the court will not always have at its disposal clarification on overseas judicial and administrative processes that are relevant to an application. Having a specialist prosecutor will help the court make the right order.
Government amendment No. 108 updates the offences covered in schedule 1 of the 1989 Act, explicitly to include section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986. The schedule lists specific and generic criminal offences that can be designated as football-related if a conviction occurs in circumstances connected to football. At present, section 4A offences are covered only if they involve the use or threat of violence. We want to ensure that we can include threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour as well as violence.
Government new clause 9 amends section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, relating to ticket touting. It ensures that internet sales are covered. We want to redress current inconsistencies and gaps in the ticket touting laws. Our motivation is to deal with public order problems rather than commercial considerations. It is currently an offence to tout in a
“public place or a place to which the public has access”.
That means that ticket touting on the internet is not covered.