Violent Crime Reduction Bill

The noble Lord is, as ever, forthright and honest in his approach to these matters. I would not say that he had entirely taken me by surprise, but what I would have intended to say does not really address the range of issues that he wants to address. He seems most keen to address the issue of district level authorities and whether they should be involved in a particular way, but I do not want to address that issue this evening. We shall give careful consideration to what the noble Lord has said, without giving any commitment to accepting necessarily what he proposes. We shall certainly look at what he has said in the Official Report and see whether it makes sense in relation to what we are attempting to achieve through the legislation. If he withdraws his amendment on those terms, I shall take it outside the Chamber to see what we can do with the issue at the heart of the amendment, as he intended it to read.