Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I have checked briefly with the Liberal Democrats and it seems that they will not move or speak to Amendment No. 121A, which is grouped with this amendment. I see the noble Baroness, Lady Harris of Richmond, assent to that. My noble friend Lord Shrewsbury has raised an interesting and important point. I noted that the issue of lawful and responsible firing of an air weapon from one set of premises to another was debated quite fully in Committee in another place on 25 October. As a result of that debate, the Government went away and had another think about how this clause should be drafted, and brought forward some of their own amendments. That was interesting because the debate centred on one issue: when the Minister wound up, Mrs Blears said that although this had not been mentioned, it had made her think of something else and that she would go away and table another kind of an amendment. We then got some lateral thinking. I appreciate that the Minister said in Committee that she was,"““anxious not to penalise people who behave in a proper and responsible manner””.—[Official Report, Commons Standing Committee B, 25/10/05; col. 220.]" That is important. The use of air weapons for vermin control, as my noble friend has said, is something that we should take seriously in suburban as well as rural areas. I live in an urban area in Woking—it could hardly be more urban—but we have golf clubs and I have been advised that golf clubs are concerned that they might fall foul of these provisions when they hire people to control vermin around the boundaries of their property in what can be fairly urban conditions. If they believe that consent either has been given or would be given, but are mistaken in that belief, they would fall foul of the offence as created here, which is surely not right. I do not believe that that is what the Government can intend. Have the Government considered further the consequences of their amendment to the Bill on Report in another place? Do they recognise that there are complexities in the drafting of the amendments that they tabled in what I appreciate was a fully constructive spirit in another place? I think there are some unintended consequences. It would be useful if the Minister could say that the Government are prepared to consider these matters further. Perhaps we could have meetings between now and Report to see whether more perfect drafting could be achieved.