Violent Crime Reduction Bill

Amendment No. 26 would require any order made by the Secretary of State under Clause 10(5) to be made by way of the draft affirmative procedure rather than the negative procedure. Orders under that subsection could extend the range of persons who can prosecute for breaches of a drinking banning order, and might be used if we can expand the range of persons who can apply for drinking banning orders. I cannot be more specific than that in response to the noble Lord’s point. It would not, in our view, be a good use of parliamentary time to require all such orders to be debated. It is entirely appropriate for an order such as this to be made by the Home Secretary and then laid before Parliament. Noble Lords can of course pray in aid against the order when it has been laid if they feel that that is right and appropriate. I also remind your Lordships’ House that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee was content with the level of scrutiny that we propose here. For those reasons, I hope that the noble Lord will not feel the need to press his amendment to a vote.