Protection of Freedoms Bill (Programme) (No. 3)

As the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) pointed out, we had a long debate in Committee on issues such as ticketing and clamping. Before I reply to her specific questions, let me remind the House what was said by many of the people she cited when we announced that we were going to ban wheel-clamping on private land. Edmund King, president of the AA, said:"““An outright ban on wheelclamping on private land is a victory for justice and common sense.””" The hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) said:"““I just want to say that this part of the Bill is fantastic and that the Home Secretary has my full support for it.””—[Official Report, 1 March 2011; Vol. 524, c. 210.]" Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said:"““We are extremely pleased that the government has decided to deal with the scourge of clamping and towing on private land, as a matter of urgency.””" The AA said in a press release:"““It is a momentous decision to prepare new legislation to end this scourge that has blighted the name of parking control in private parking areas for so long.””" I quoted those comments partly to remind Opposition Members that what they proposed to do was license the companies concerned—in fact, individuals have been licensed, which clearly has not worked according to the tales told by almost every Member in the House about those whose cars have been clamped and from whom money has been more or less extorted—and also to remind them that the system that we propose was wanted by Members on both sides of the House. The issue now is how to ensure that we can implement it. Licensing clamping businesses, as suggested by the Opposition, was not the answer. We have discussed the ““what ifs””—all the issues that might arise—and the potential problems if rogue clampers became rogue ticketers. In Scotland clamping was banned in 1992, very successfully. On deciding to consider the option of banning, the first thing I did was ask my officials to inquire what the repercussions and difficulties had been in Scotland, such as whether the use of barriers had been impossible and whether there were rogue clampers. I looked into those matters in 2010, which was after 18 years, and my officials came back and said there had been just a handful of letters about any problems in all that time.