Clause 32 - Supplying imitation firearms to minors
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
5:45 pm
Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Solicitor General (Also Assists Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs), (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Huntingdon, Conservative)
We note that our amendment suggested by the trading standards authorities was not selected by the Chairman—for good reasons, I am sure. The amendment was a response to concern about the way in which clause 32 would amend the Firearms Act 1968. The defence set out in subsections (3) and (4) of the proposed new section 24A is flawed and out of date. The existing language has been shown to be unenforceable in practice. It is therefore preferable that the Government should adopt the standard approach to those defences, as set out in section 146 of the Licensing Act 2003.
The amendment would also have provided for exemption of children used in test purchasing by trading standards. We believed that that was a sensible inclusion to prevent the clause from having unintended victims, as well as to ensure that the relevant laws could be tested and enforced properly.