Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I am grateful to the noble Viscount for addressing his amendment in the way that he has and particularly for drawing attention to the problems that might arise in what could be described as military towns. When I read the amendment I thought instantly of Colchester, which is near where I grew up. I can see that there could be circumstances in which the military police might have an interest. I then began to think about how that interest would be addressed. The amendment provides that the senior officer of any military police unit becomes the appropriate person in an application for a drinking banning order. The implications of this are that the police, local authority or transport police, as well as consulting each other before they seek a drinking banning order against an individual, would have to consult the senior officer of any military police unit. The police, local authority and transport police are a ““relevant authority”” and are also ““appropriate persons””. They need to consult each other before making an application for a drinking banning order. The noble Viscount was suggesting that rather than consulting, they wish simply to inform each other. The reason why we want them to consult is that there is a need to ensure that actions taken by each agency, regarding the same individual, do not conflict. Effectively, we want them to work together, to act in concert, to understand each other’s particular problems or difficulties, to understand why there is a need to apply for a drinking banning order and to understand what it will achieve in any given set of circumstances. As we see it, as a senior officer of any military police unit cannot apply for a drinking banning order, there is no need for him to be consulted. In our view, there is no benefit in senior officers becoming appropriate persons. We approached the MoD on this issue and it was content with the approach that we were adopting. Although I entirely understand why the noble Viscount has moved this amendment, we do not believe it adds anything. As the military police will not be the relevant authority or the appropriate persons, they do not think they need to be involved as a consultee. I have little doubt that in the military towns with which the noble Viscount and I are familiar there may occasionally be careful consultation with the military police authorities. But we do not believe that the matter needs to be flagged up on the face of the Bill.