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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, and the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, for tabling Amendments Nos. 107, 107ZA and 107ZB, and for the passionate comments from other Members of the House. This brings us back to the issue of ensuring that the process for making premises closure orders gives proper consideration to the needs of children and vulnerable adults. I accept and I share many of the concerns, as do the Government, which is why I have tabled a government amendment, the details of which I shall come to shortly. In Committee, I listened to the concerns expressed by noble Lords and I recognise that they want to ensure that a premises closure order would be a proportionate response to the disorder, which would be made after all other options had been tried and had failed. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller, touched on that issue. The Committee was also concerned about the implications for homelessness, especially for the vulnerable occupants of the premises. The Government have never disputed that these are important matters for agencies to consider when making an application for an order, but we considered that they would best be addressed in non-statutory guidance. Following the debate, we have reconsidered our position. Amendment No. 107A would make the proposed guidance statutory, which I hope will address the issue raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern. That is the position as it exists in Scotland. Furthermore, there will be a duty on anyone using the power to have regard to the guidance. In Committee, I also undertook to consider what material I could provide to the House to give an idea of what the guidance would consist of. I am sure noble Lords will appreciate that I cannot provide a complete draft of the guidance now. It will need to be carefully drawn up by officials in consultation with the agencies which will be responsible for exercising the new power. This issue was raised by Members of this House and, therefore, we will address that point. However, we would anticipate basing it on the Scottish model. It is likely to cover, among other things—as I have said, it has to be refined and carefully drawn up by officials in consultation with agencies—the purpose and intent of the legislation; the definitions of terms—for example, anti-social behaviour, significant and persistent disorder, persistent serious nuisance; the serving of notice; the making of the case in court; the enforcement of the order; the appeal mechanism; the assessment of and support for vulnerable adults and children—very important areas that have been mentioned; the issue of homelessness; and examples of circumstances where the power should be used and where it should not be used. Noble Lords were particularly concerned about what type of behaviour might constitute a serious persistent nuisance or disorder. I can well understand that, and again the Scottish guidance, which will have to be refined, gives examples that may include persistent, intimidating and threatening behaviour towards residents and members of the public; the presence or discharge of a firearm in an adjacent premises; significant problems of sexual acts being committed within the premises; consistent evidence of discarded drugs paraphernalia and other dangerous items; serious disorder associated with alcohol abuse, for example in and around drinking dens; high numbers of people entering and leaving the premises at all times of the day or night and disruption caused to residents; and constant and intrusive noise, or excessive noise at all hours associated with visitors to the property. I expect that the guidance for England and Wales will be drawn up along similar lines, but it has to be refined.