Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I congratulate the noble Lord on tabling the amendment. We support it in general terms. There is a profound need to address the underlying problem of alcohol misuse, as many lobbies in this policy field, in particular Alcohol Concern, have rightly argued. It is an issue which the Government take very seriously. As we said when the Bill was introduced, it needs to be seen as part of our package of health and education measures to try to change cultural attitudes towards excessive drinking. Time will be needed to measure the success of that approach. As has been said, the Government, the Department of Health and industry representatives are convening specifically to address labelling and the sensible drinking message. The Home Office is also involved in alcohol referral schemes in a number of ways, both voluntary referral schemes and the more stringent approach developed as part of the conditional caution. Under the conditional caution approach, where someone has admitted an offence at the lower end of the scale and agrees to address their offending, the prosecutor can refer the offender to undertake rehabilitative or reparative action, for example attending alcohol counselling as a formal condition in alcohol-related offences. The offender can be prosecuted for the original offence if he or she accepts the condition but then fails to comply. Two conditional caution alcohol referral schemes are being trialled in Lancashire and the West Midlands. The noble Lord referred to the Dudley scheme. As we roll out conditional cautions across England and Wales, we intend to work with providers to expand the opportunities for such referrals as well as working with them to expand the existing voluntary schemes where they are found to be effective. For example, my honourable friend Paul Goggins, formerly the Minister with responsibility for alcohol matters in the Home Office, met representatives of the Aquarius scheme in Dudley, and officials are exploring what can be learnt from those approaches, with a view to increasing the opportunities for such referrals. That is also why we are introducing new clauses in this Bill to help individuals who are subject to drinking banning orders take a course to address their alcohol misuse and behaviour. We discussed that at an earlier stage. We are keen to take the opportunity in the criminal justice system to identify those whose offending is linked to alcohol misuse and to take steps to help them. However, we need to be sure that we are using public funds wisely. Not every offender who does something stupid while drunk will need alcohol counselling, and we need to test how effective the voluntary referral schemes are, and for which offenders and in which circumstances they should be applied. I am not convinced that we need to make alcohol referral schemes statutory as the amendment describes before such analysis. However, I should add that we gave an undertaking to review our alcohol reduction strategy in 2007 and we will continue to consider opportunities for alcohol referral as we develop that strategy. We want this matter to be evidence-based; we recognise the value of the work that has been conducted in the West Midlands and in Lancashire. We have seen the product of that work; there have been definite improvements in the recidivism level for those who have gone through the referral scheme and we are signed up to the fact that the scheme has great merit. We want to give it further time. We can return to it later, and there are measures in the Bill that will assist those who are subject to drinking banning orders to find their way on to appropriate courses to address their alcohol misuse and behavioural problems, to turn away from that and adopt a more sensible approach to drinking. I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising the subject. It has given me the opportunity to set out our approach on these matters, and I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.