Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I should like to put on record my thanks to the hon. Member for Bootle (Mr. Benton) and the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) for chairing my first Committee and to the Minister and all hon. Members for a constructive and instructive debate. Despite the Minister’s comments, I welcome the Government’s attempts to deal with a scourge in all our communities—the twin evils of alcohol and the rise in the use of weapons. I fear that the Bill will have to deal with more disorder than it would otherwise have done. Although I have much sympathy with the Government’s position on relaxing licensing laws, problems are already arising in that local residents’ and local authorities’ decisions are being overturned. That is a great pity. One of the main ideas was staggering the hours at which people would leave pubs, yet I understand that, instead of leaving at 11 pm or 12 am, they all come out at 2.30 am or 3 am. That will create problems for the alcohol disorder zones and make matters more difficult. Again, despite the Minister’s comments, I support the idea of alcohol disorder zones. I am disappointed that she does not wish me to criticise what I find so difficult about the matter: the lack of regulations or guidance that show what differentials can be made in the charging regime so that different levels of culpability can be appropriately charged. However, we are short of time and I do not want to dwell on that. I have learned more about weaponry than I ever wanted to know during our debates. One outstanding matter, which we had no time to reach, was determining the lethal Joule energy output. I am not sure that I could make a judgment on that because I understand that Ireland allows 4 J whereas 1 J is allowed here. I do not know at what point one dies or what test should determine that. I had thought about lining people up and ascertaining at what Joule output they keeled over, but I am not sure that that is the right way to approach the matter.