Manchester City Council Bill [Lords](By Order)

I had not heard that. Another issue for a council trying to take enforcement action is that a pedlars licence might have been issued somewhere else. Although a council might have a good relationship with local police, it might not have such a close relationship with the police on the other side of the country, who might apply the criteria slightly differently. That makes it difficult for councils to take enforcement action against a pedlar who might be breaching the law. The Conservative spokesperson also spoke about the difficulty of enforcing action against pedlars who are breaking the law. There are a number of reasons for that, one of which has been referred to by the hon. Member for Bolton, South-East. The criteria are uncertain. That was certainly an issue that Brent council mentioned to me. Obviously, there is a different legislative framework in London, but the council told me of the difficulties that it had had because it was unclear how the courts would interpret the definition of a pedlar. The hon. Member for Manchester, Central spoke about meeting the letter of the law if a pedlar moves around every 20 minutes. My council explained the difficulties caused by a pedlar who might move to the other side of the road in the afternoon, and say that they were moving around. For councils, because of the expense of taking action and the uncertainty of the criteria that courts might use, it is very difficult to decide whether to take action against a pedlar who is effectively operating as a street trader. There are also wider issues. The hon. Member for Pudsey (Mr. Truswell) mentioned that the pedlar might operate entirely legally but be trading somewhere where the council might want to regulate that activity. The problem may not be that the law is being broken but simply that councils want to regulate what is happening in their areas. For instance, a pedlar might be causing an obstruction or inconveniencing people—or, as has been mentioned, it might be dangerous to trade in certain locations—but it is impossible to take enforcement action against someone with a pedlars licence.