Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I strongly support the amendment. As the Committee is unusually thin at the moment, perhaps I may add that the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart of Swindon, to whom I was speaking earlier this afternoon, also strongly supports it. Unfortunately, he has another engagement at the moment and is unable to be here to give his vocal support, as he would like to have done. I can think of one reason and one reason only why the Government might be hesitant about accepting the amendment—fear of imagined public opinion and the opinion of a segment of the tabloid press. Those fears might have been justified, or partly justified, five or more years ago but I submit that that is no longer the case—in particular, with the Olympics looming ever closer. On the contrary, I suggest that the Government would be overwhelmingly applauded by the majority of the public and the media if they accepted this extremely modest amendment.