Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:30 pm on 4 November 1996.
I do not believe that those are alternatives. We take crime prevention extremely seriously. The police take it seriously and spend a good deal of the £6 billion a year that we provide on crime prevention. In addition, £240 million is spent on crime prevention from other Government budgets. I accept that it is important to take crime prevention seriously, but serious, persistent and dangerous offenders need to be in custody so that the public can be adequately protected from their activities. That is the reasoning behind the measures in the Bill.
I shall give way to the hon. Member for Sherwood (Mr. Tipping), but then I must make some progress.