Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (Additional Authorities) Order 2007

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 6 November be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move that this order be approved. I apologise in advance because I have a rather heavy cold and I am full of pills. If my voice goes, I shall try to keep it loud enough for everyone to hear. The order extends Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act to cover the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and the London Development Agency. This section places a duty on named agencies to consider the implications for crime—which includes terrorism, disorder, anti-social behaviour and substance misuse—as they carry out their business and do all that they reasonably can to prevent such activity. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced the practice of partnership working to reduce crime and disorder, and places a statutory duty on the police, police authorities, local authorities, fire and rescue authorities, primary care trusts in England and local health boards in Wales to develop and implement a strategy to tackle crime and disorder, including anti-social behaviour and substance misuse in their area. In doing so, these responsible authorities are required to work in partnership with a range of other local public, private, community and voluntary groups, and with the community itself. This approach recognises that the causes of crime and disorder, and the interventions required to deliver safer, more secure communities, lie with a range of organisations, groups and individuals working in partnership. This Act recognises that key groups have responsibility for the provision of a wide and varied range of services to and within the community and, in undertaking these functions, that they have a duty to do all that they reasonably can to prevent crime and disorder in their area. This duty means that these agencies have to consider crime and disorder reduction while exercising all their other responsibilities. This reflects the reality that there are crime and/or disorder implications in decisions made across many different agencies. Section 17 is aimed at giving the vital work of crime and disorder reduction a focus across the wide range of local services and putting it at the heart of local decision making. Currently, this duty applies only to local authorities, joint authorities, national park authorities and the Broads Authority, police authorities and all fire and rescue authorities. The Home Secretary has the power to add to the list of agencies affected by the duty. This order seeks to add the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and the London Development Agency to the list of agencies affected by this duty. The Home Secretary took the decision to include these agencies after a wider government consultation on the future of the Greater London Authority. This consultation included a suggestion to extend Section 17 to cover the Greater London Authority and those of its functional bodies not already covered by it. There was widespread support for such a move and the commitment to extend the duty was included in the Government’s policy statement on the Greater London Authority. The Government’s final proposals for additional powers and responsibilities for the mayor and Assembly were published in July 2006. A minority was concerned that Section 17 duties would overshadow and undermine current GLA powers, as defined in Section 30 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. This states that the GLA has power to do anything in the interest of promoting economic development, social development or the environment within Greater London. We do not agree: we believe that Section 17 will complement the general powers and explicitly underline the extent to which community safety has a vital part to play in securing the wider GLA objectives. Since then, the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and the London Development Agency have adopted voluntarily the principles underpinning this duty. As part of its work to ensure sustainable social, economic and environmental development, the London Development Agency has published a community safety statement which states clearly its commitment to crime reduction and gives examples of the work that it is doing to support crime reduction and community safety. To improve community safety on the London transport system, Transport for London has produced a community safety plan outlining the work that it is doing, again emphasising its commitment to adopting Section 17 principles. It is worth noting that this duty to consider crime and disorder, as an agency carries out its business, is different from the duty to work in partnership with others to reduce crime. That duty falls within Section 5 of the Crime and Disorder Act. These three agencies are not included in the list of authorities covered by Section 5. As such, the Greater London Authority, the London Development Agency and Transport for London do not become responsible authorities within crime and disorder reduction partnerships in London. They are not under a duty to engage with all 33 crime and disorder reduction partnerships or affected by other legislation concerning responsible authorities in those partnerships. The Government believe that extending Section 17 to these three agencies will strengthen and improve efforts to reduce crime and improve community safety across London. Introducing this new duty formalises the work that they have undertaken voluntarily and reflects the commitment of these agencies to ensure that crime reduction and community safety lie at the heart of decisions made by the Greater London Assembly and the function bodies. I commend this order to the House. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 6 November be approved.—First Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord West of Spithead.)