Results 1-20 of 1,232 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:James Brokenshire

Coroners and Justice Bill: Removal of limitation on warrants under Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (12 Nov 2009)

James Brokenshire: I support Lords amendment 43, which clarifies the rules across the country. It is interesting to note that the provisions of the amendment already apply in Northern Ireland, as one of the subsequent amendments shows, and it therefore seems a sensible proposal to adopt. I thank the Minister for his kind comments, and in return I thank him and his team, and also the hon. Member for Gedling...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 96 — Retention and destruction of samples etc: England and Wales (12 Nov 2009)

James Brokenshire: I admire the Minister's elegant attempt to stay on the front foot on this issue, but let us be clear: this is a retreat. The Government had wanted to grow the DNA database as a primary policy principle, but they cannot do that now. They wanted to retain profiles on people arrested but never charged with or convicted of any offence, but they have now accepted that they can no longer do that,...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 35 — Contents of injunctions: supplemental (12 Nov 2009)

James Brokenshire: The Conservatives made it clear in Committee and on Report that we would support measures to deal with the serious problem of gang-related violence, which affects so many communities and young people up and down our country. In the past fortnight, the charity Catch22 published a survey of young people's experiences of crime and put this issue into context by suggesting that more than one in...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Clause 27 — Increase in penalty for offence (12 Nov 2009)

James Brokenshire: We are obviously pleased that the Government have listened to a number of points made in Committee and during the course of the Bill's passage. I was very pleased to note that the Minister accepted that the need for clause 27 was questionable on the basis, as he said, that no one had actually received the current £500 fine up to now. As the British Retail Consortium put it in its...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: The hon. Gentleman is praying in aid the National Audit Office report. Will he comment on the fact that that report also said that "Sixty one per cent of people aged under-18 displayed anti-social behaviour again" having received an acceptable behaviour contract? What are his comments on the breach rate for those young people?

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: I welcome this debate on antisocial behaviour—a problem that blights too many communities across the country and one that has a marked impact on the quality of people's lives, the confidence people have in their own communities and their sense of safety. The Minister himself mentioned these factors in his opening comments. I need to take the Minister to task, however, over what he said...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: It is fairly typical of the right hon. Lady to come up with a point like that, when she well knows that there are plenty of savings to be made in the Home Office's budget—on ID cards and all sorts of other things, but not on front-line services. That, I think, is the key part of where we are today in ensuring that we deliver those front-line services for the benefit of our communities...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: Conservative Members have always been committed to dealing with antisocial behaviour. The hon. Lady is keen to talk about antisocial behaviour orders, and we will deal with those later, because there is plenty to say about them.

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: Antisocial behaviour orders can be effective. We need to subject them to analysis, and to bear in mind the complete lack of focus on them that the Government have displayed. The National Audit Office was very clear about that. If the right hon. Lady will allow me, I shall develop my argument a little further and explain how antisocial behaviour orders may not have lived up to her own...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: The hon. Lady has made an important point about the steps that should be taken to prevent antisocial behaviour from occurring in the first place, and it clear that some good partnership work is being done around the country. However, we should consider the context. In response to the very point that the hon. Lady has made, the Police Federation argued that the adoption of initiative after...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: I am sure that, if the Police Federation follows our proceedings, its members will note what the hon. Lady has said. There is a case for sharing and applying good practice more effectively than is being done at present, and I shall say more about that later. However—this also relates to the hon. Lady's point—I think that we should consider what we mean by antisocial behaviour, as...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: Causation is a pertinent issue, and also a very complex one. A whole range of interventions and support is needed to deal with these situations. There is, however, clearly a need for early action to be taken because, as the National Audit Office report and various other studies demonstrate, such situations can quickly escalate into becoming cases that involve much more serious offending....

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: The interesting question here is what exactly the Minister means by that, because if we think about targets, inspection and the policing pledge, we realise that there is a whole range of issues on which the police are measured under what is a specific target-driven approach. Therefore, it is still interesting that— [Interruption.] The Minister claims from a sedentary position that there...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: That is interesting, because the hon. Lady suggests that the power should come from the people—that it should come from the ground up, rather than from the top down. Therefore, she is making a case against her other point about the need to direct from the centre. There is a need to create greater discretion across policing as quickly as possible, and our approach is based on two clear...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: We have made a very clear commitment to keeping officers on the streets. Our approach is that we must ensure that front-line policing is supported because the public want to know that they have police officers there—there to protect and support them and to deal with the issues that matter to communities. That is why we are proposing these practical measures to address that by getting...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: My hon. Friend makes an important point about localising priorities. Some aspects of the culture that has been created have not supported or helped in that regard, nor have they ensured that the concerns of communities have been adequately addressed. This underlines why we must have a bottom-up approach and why communities' needs and concerns must be respected.

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: I have been generous in giving way, so I will move on if I may, as I would like to return to my point on inspection. We now have the policing pledge. On the face of it, its purpose is to set and raise standards, but it will be inspected on. Therefore, we will have a further range of inspection of performance against the police pledge. It was introduced as a message to the public, not as...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: As I have already said to the right hon. Lady, we support the use of ASBOs in a targeted way. The information that I have just provided simply sets out that their application and the approach has not been properly considered. That point is made not by me, but by the NAO. It is, thus, strange that the Government have been dragging their feet on providing the qualitative analysis required to...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: I will move on, because I have been generous in giving way to lots of people. We would give police officers the discretion to deal quickly and effectively with young troublemakers who commit antisocial behaviour before they go on to commit more serious offences. We believe that there is a need for a quicker, less bureaucratic and more effective mechanism for addressing delinquent and...

Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill [ Lords]: Antisocial Behaviour (2 Nov 2009) has video

James Brokenshire: No, far from it. I did not mention those proposals for the sake of brevity and to allow other hon. Members to take part in this debate. We are certainly working up the proposals that my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell has actively highlighted. I shall return to the point about active participation by communities, once I have taken an intervention from the hon. Member for...