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Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, the noble Baroness has a point, although I am not sure that I can support her entirely. Although I understand her concerns that local authorities should not be able to act without any involvement from the police at all, I would not want to see the local authority cut out from any involvement. However, I would like to see the relationship between the local authority and the police laid out with greater clarity in the Bill. The evidence that will be needed to impose an injunction will no doubt come from both bodies. The Bill should reflect that. It would be quite wrong for the courts to impose an injunction on someone whom the police have no suspicion or knowledge of at all, but local authorities will have a great deal of relevant information about a potential respondent to which the police and the courts should have access. I hope that the Minister will be able to say more about the relevant roles that the police and local authorities will play in the application for an injunction. I repeat that both need to be involved.