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Violent Crime Reduction Bill

moved Amendment No. 63:"Page 10, line 24, leave out ““may”” and insert ““shall””" The noble Baroness said: This amendment would remove the discretion afforded to the Secretary of State to make provision by regulations requiring local authorities to use any money raised by alcohol disorder zone charges for set purposes. It would be mandatory for such regulations to be issued. It seems odd that this discretion has been left in the Bill. Surely the money raised by a local authority from these charges should be used to address the problems caused by alcohol disorder and not for any other purpose entirely unconnected with alcohol disorder. In theory it would still be open to the Secretary of State to specify the ““other purposes”” unrelated to alcohol disorder prevention, but if that is the case the Secretary of State should be the one to justify that policy decision. If what to do with the money is left to the discretion of local authorities, small and medium-sized town centre businesses may understandably feel that they are at risk of being subject to a tax that will raise income for local authorities to do with as they please rather than making a contribution to remedying an identified and specific problem. I beg to move.