Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]

I welcome what the Minister says. I have a proposal on a subject that I asked the Minister about. The real issue for most people is whether the person at the door is someone with authority. People can usually tell whether someone is a police officer; they know what to expect from police officers, and they know how they behave, and what their powers are. However, people may appear at the door in civilian dress. They may present a piece of paper, but who knows what its authenticity is? The person at home may not have anything to do with the debt that was incurred; they may be family or a friend, on a visit. I am sympathetic to the possible way forward that the Minister mentioned, namely that people of authority, specifically if they have they authority ever to break into someone’s property, should be uniformed. In this day and age, we need a broader debate about the role of the people in authority in all our communities who are not police officers, including community support officers and neighbourhood wardens. They may not all want to be uniformed, and I am not arguing that they should be; I am just opening up the question of how we can make sure that someone—whether it is the 87-year-old lady on her own, or the person who has just moved in—can identify people in authority who come to their front door. That is a real issue, and we need to protect people from the fright and fear that is caused when the knock on the door is not justified. My next proposition is that there ought to be a local place where people can go to check registers of debt and judgment. Not everybody has access to websites and e-mails at home; a pensioner aged 75 who lives on their own will not immediately rush to check a website. More important, in a way, although it is a linked point, is the issue raised by the hon. Member for Bolton, South-East (Dr. Iddon). We should ensure that we can address cases in which a bailiff has come to take property, and the person says, ““But I’ve paid!”” Certainly, I have done casework, as have others, involving people who have paid on the deadline, which was the Friday before a bank holiday Monday. The money may not have cleared by Tuesday, but that is when the people come in and take property away. We must have a system that allows us to check. We all leave some things to the last minute, and people often leave to the last minute the payment of money that they can barely afford, or that they do not want to pay. We need to be careful about that. My last proposal is for a cooling-off period. When property is taken, it should be held for a time in a holding place, somewhere relatively local, so that if something is wrong, that property has not disappeared irretrievably. It is a bit like the car pound theory for vehicles. We need somewhere that property can be held, without it disappearing or being sold off to raise the money. That is a real issue, and I will play a constructive part in working out how that might be done.