Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for the courteous, thorough and thoughtful way in which she spoke to her amendments. I will deal with them in turn. First, I ought to put right a mistake that I made, as I did not fully complete speaking to the government amendments. I had not properly considered my notes, and I apologise to the Committee for that. I will briefly run through the two amendments that I have not covered, and then I will return to the points raised by the noble Baroness on her amendments. Looking again at the provisions in Clause 32 which make it an offence to manufacture, import or sell realistic imitation firearms, it became apparent that a small tweak was required to the specific defences created in Clause 33. Although persons in the service of Her Majesty are not bound by these provisions, anyone who sells a realistic imitation to them or who manufactures or imports realistic imitations for those purposes would still be committing an offence, since they are not themselves Crown exempt. For example, the police and members of the Armed Forces use realistic blank-firing or dummy weapons for a range of tactical and training purposes or to try out onto-weapon accessories, such as night vision devices. Clearly, it is important that those should continue to be available to them. Amendment No. 126A seeks to ensure that by extending the specific defences in Clause 33 to cover supply for the purposes of functions carried out by someone in their capacity as a person in the service of Her Majesty. Amendment No. 147C makes a consequential addition to Clause 43 to apply the definition of,"““a person in the service of Her Majesty””," used in Section 54 of the Firearms Act 1968. The noble Baroness referred to the concerns expressed by the Great War Society about the reconstruction of the battle of the Somme. I am almost inclined to declare an interest, as my now very late stepfather was a combatant in that great conflict as a boy soldier. It is now nearly 90 years ago and I am sure that, like all of his compatriots who fought, he was very brave indeed. We owe that generation a great debt of gratitude. We have had discussions in the past few days with the secretary of the Great War Society and I think we have now securely reassured him about blank-firing imitations. I think that the society is now satisfied by the assurances that there should be no difficulty. I am sure that will apply to the Lewis gun, to which the noble Baroness referred, as well. With regard to discussions with the airsofters, I understand where the noble Baroness is coming from on this. We accept that tactics and skills are only one aspect of airsoft, and that suspension of disbelief is considered important by airsofters. Nevertheless, we take the view that they can continue their activities using non-realistic imitations. The noble Baroness invited me to continue dialogue on this issue outside the Chamber. I am reluctant to give great encouragement to the idea that there might be a compromise or outcome that may satisfy all concerned but I am not unhappy for discussions to continue. If common ground can be found between us and the airsofters, we remain open to offers, as it were. At this stage I am not prepared to give a commitment that we will be able to achieve exactly that. I certainly would not rule out having more discussions on the matter and will happily hear what the noble Baroness has to say outside the Chamber. We have probably satisfied the concerns of the Great War Society but airsofters present a problem that is beyond us today. On Question, amendment agreed to.