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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

Exactly, my Lords. We are talking about increasing the powers of the police to arrest someone on the basis of a criminal offence—namely, the new criminal offence in this Bill. It would be open to a police officer to arrest somebody for a breach of this offence, which does not amount to assault or threatening behaviour, as those would give him a power to arrest anyway. Our amendment would give the police the power when they are called into an NHS surgery to remove somebody causing trouble and refusing to leave. We put the protection of NHS staff, in whatever context, above the Government’s desire to have some sort of security service in every GP surgery before this power can be used. The Minister pooh-poohs the idea that there should be a notice on the wall; he says that no one would take any notice of it.