Violent Crime Reduction Bill

moved Amendment No. 92:"Page 13, line 3, leave out subsection (3)." The noble Lord said: The amendments in this group deal with the variation of the locality and with the termination of an alcohol disorder zone. The purpose of Amendment No. 92 is to prevent a local authority being able to vary the extent of the locality to which an ADZ is attached by making a replacement order without proper consultation. A local authority should not be able to designate, for example, all the licensed premises within a town or within a ward—to use the area referred to by the Minister—without going through the full procedure. This is where the matter ties in with Amendment No. 94. When the clause refers in subsection (6) to new procedures being brought in by regulations it suggests that there would be a fast-track way of extending a locality or of varying a locality without the necessary consultation. If an authority does that, it should go through the full procedure of preparing an action plan again and giving the newly-affected licensees an opportunity to eradicate any nuisance in the newly-defined area by the measures that are agreed. The full scale of charges should not be implemented until those procedures have been carried out. The first part of Amendment No. 93—new subsection (5A)—puts what is in effect a sunset clause on ADZs so that they should not be allowed to roll on indefinitely but should have a set lifespan. The problem envisaged with alcohol disorder zones is that to a local authority they could appear to be a very nice way of raising money without ever interfering with the designation; a local authority could continue to collect money from the licensed premises for the policing of the town and so on. We believe that that is undesirable and that a term should be put into the legislation. New subsection (5B) ensures that if a local authority wants the alcohol disorder zone to continue, it should go through the procedures of publication, consideration of representations and preparation of a fresh action plan again. After all, if there has been an action plan, and it has been partly implemented—I refer to the debate we had a moment ago—then the local authority should take a fresh look at the situation and put forward proper proposals. That is the reason for these probing amendments. I beg to move.