Violent Crime Reduction Bill

Clause 13 sets out criteria for designating an area as an alcohol disorder zone and specifies the steps that local authorities and the police must take before a zone can be so designated. The noble Viscount’s amendment relates to the criteria and those steps. The Bill provides that the local authority must be satisfied that the tests are met. The amendment seems to be aimed at making the test applied by the local authority more objective. As my noble friend Lord Borrie said, that is always a desirable practice but, in effect, we do not think that the amendment will have any impact on achieving that end. I understand the intention behind the amendment but we have made it clear that alcohol disorder zones are an intervention of last resort. Accordingly, local authorities and the police will have to present an objective and transparent case for proposing an alcohol disorder zone. It cannot be, to use the noble Viscount’s expression, made at someone’s whim. There needs to be a system of proper checks and balances in place. But do we need this amendment to achieve that end? I suggest that we do not. The guidance provided for under the Bill will make specific and particular reference to the case for an alcohol disorder zone, and that is the most intelligent way to proceed. It will cover the type of evidence base within which local authorities will have to demonstrate that the criteria have been met. It is in the interests of local communities and certainly of local authorities and the police to promote that approach. In that way, those who are involved in securing the action plan will have a degree of what is sometimes described in the business as ““buy-in”” to the scheme. We want an objective approach; we do not want a whimsical approach. I should have thought that given his new leader’s enthusiasm for encouraging local interest, local discretion and more local powers for local authorities, the noble Viscount would have welcomed placing with local authorities a responsibility which builds on those conferred on them in the Licensing Act 2003. We on this side sometimes call this an element of new localism. That local authorities take responsibility and encourage collective responsibility is welcome. Alcohol disorder zones go a lot further down that route. That is the approach that we want to secure. I hope that the noble Viscount, having heard what I have said, will be happy to withdraw his amendment.