My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. I am also a patron of the Traveller Movement and an officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gypsies, Travellers and Roma. The noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, is a long-standing co-chair of that group, and it is a pleasure to follow her. I agree with everything she has said.
In this large group, I have added my name to Amendment 136 and to Clauses 62 and 64 stand part. I shall leave others to talk about the amendments, while I focus on the overall effect of those clauses and why they should not stand part of the Bill.
Since the mid-1990s, I have seen closely how society in our country manages its relationship with the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community. As chair of education in Cambridgeshire, we worked very closely with our Gypsy and Traveller community, and our schools, to make it easier for children to access school when their parents moved for work—usually, but not only, following the patterns of generations moving from farm to farm to work at whatever the seasonal needs required. The families that we knew found it hard to access education, and the difficult reception that they faced from very hostile communities meant that all too frequently, children were bullied, in and out of school. Our district council community officers worked closely with these families to support them. The most distressing things that I heard directly from families then are still true today, and possibly even worse, because now, adults, including teachers, abuse and bully Traveller families, and even children in school.
On Clause 62 on unauthorised encampments, it is worth remembering that well over a decade ago, local government was asked by the Government to provide more authorised encampments based on the planning needs of their own Traveller communities. The reality was that far too many councils not only did not create
the number of encampments needed in their area but have closed other existing ones. As a result, it is harder for a family to find a pitch on an authorised encampment. Without a base, it is much harder to access services such as education, health and even work. It is a vicious circle that this clause makes much worse.
Friends, Families and Travellers conducted research into compliance with planning policy for traveller sites and assessed the need and supply of Gypsy and Traveller pitches in 2016, and again in 2019, analysing Gypsy and Traveller accommodation assessments and local plans from all planning authorities in the south-east of England. The most recent findings revealed shockingly low numbers, with only eight out of 68 local authorities meeting their identified need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches. There is a similar picture across the country.
Despite the statements of the Home Secretary, there was an overall 8.4% decrease in pitches on local authority Traveller sites between 2010-2020. As a result of these pressures, the Gypsy and Traveller community, working with local authorities and landowners, has created other solutions to managing encampments that have been developed over recent times, such as negotiated stopping, where arrangements are made on agreed stopping times and to ensure the provision of basic amenities such as water, sanitation and refuse collection.
Part 4 of the Bill contains some of the most hostile legislation seen against one community. The introduction of a new criminal offence where trespassers have the intent to reside will apply when a person is residing, or intending to reside, on land without consent and has been asked to leave by the occupier, their representative or the police; has at least one vehicle with them on the land; has caused, or is likely to cause, significant damage, disruption or distress; has failed to comply with this request as soon as reasonably practicable and has no reasonable excuse for doing so. Failure to comply without “reasonable excuse” can lead to the police exercising powers to seize a vehicle—and let us remember that that is someone’s home, with all their possessions in it—as well as imprisonment and a fine. All these measures are completely disproportionate, but the severity of the seizure of a home and possessions is extraordinary.
The impacts of these measures will be catastrophic for an individual and a family suddenly without a home or possessions and with potentially any family member over 18 years of age thrown straight into the criminal justice system. Beyond the immediate impact, this will also affect the welfare of the whole family and severely impact on the children, who would lose their home and could face children’s services interventions, possibly with the family breaking up.
These proposals are being put forward despite the existence of a range of other eviction powers for encampments, and despite the range of alternative solutions grounded in a humane and common-sense approach, such as the provision of more sites and stopping places. There are already a wide range of eviction powers for encampments, which can be exercised as swiftly as within an hour and which can be triggered if incidents of anti-social behaviour occur. These enable a response based on conduct, not on what a landowner might think is “likely”. The powers will disproportionately affect this minority and ethnic communities, and are
likely to be in conflict with equality and human rights legislation, as the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, has outlined.
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These clauses are part of a sustained attack on the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. In May this year, Matthew Parris wrote an article in the Times headlined, “It’s time we stopped pandering to Travellers.” He went on to say that
“there is no place for the true nomad in modern Britain.”
I beg to differ. We have human rights legislation to protect those rights that are being destroyed.
Regarding Clause 64, the police do not want these more draconian powers. The National Police Chiefs’ Council issued operational guidance on the policing of unauthorised encampments, which has been agreed by all chief officers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It states:
“The co-ordinated use of powers available under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 allows for a proportionate response to encampments based on the behaviour of the trespassers.”
In the NPCC 2019 response to the Government’s 2019 consultation on unauthorised encampments, the NPCC said that,
“the possibility of creating a new criminal offence of intentional trespass or similar has been raised at various times over the years but our position has always been—and remains—that no new criminal trespass offence is required.”
However, it is not just the concerns of the police. Frankly, the subjective nature of the language in Part 4 leaves the powers wide open to abuse. One example will suffice: the use of the word “significant”. “Significant” is a threshold requirement, which the Supreme Court recently characterised as,
“like the skin of a chameleon, the adjective takes a different colour so as to suit a different context.”
In other contexts, the word “significant” has caused confusion and required consideration by the Court of Appeal following many years of litigation. Will the Minister explain to the House where we can find a definition of significant that would satisfy the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and not leave these clauses open to abuse?
I find particularly chilling the new role of a private individual in triggering a criminal offence. It could mean the powers are misused, particularly where prejudicial views exist. That is why I support the various amendments in this group that try to clarify and make it plain that only authorised police officers should do that.
The definition of a Gypsy or Traveller in planning terms requires proof of travelling: without that, you are not assessed as needing a pitch or planning permission, but the community’s ability to travel will be severely impeded. We are back to that vicious circle. It is another attempt to force people into settled homes against their traditions, their wishes and their human rights. I look forward to hearing the contributions of other noble Lords, but in the meantime, I believe that the best thing possible for Clauses 62 and 64 is to remove them entirely from the Bill, and for the police and other public bodies to rely on the existing legislation.