My Lords, I am not sure whether noble Lords want more time to debate or me to hurry up. If noble Lords will indulge me for a minute, I will thank them for the support for the new measures that has come from one area of the House, but it is clear that a number of other noble Lords are less enamoured of the government amendments. As I said in opening the debate, I think the British public will fully support these reasonable and proportionate measures to ensure that their daily lives are not disrupted by the sorts of tactics we saw from Insulate Britain last autumn. This is not an argument for or against climate change; it is about the disruption caused to the lives of the working British public.
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I turn to the amendments in this group in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser. Amendment 150A would limit the extent of the increased penalties for obstructing the highway only to individuals who obstruct highways that form part of the strategic road network. I cannot support this amendment. It would leave large parts of our road network unprotected. For example, major trunk roads such as the A400 would not be covered, meaning that individuals could still wilfully obstruct major highways without facing these increased penalties. As the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, said,
many hospitals and schools are not on major roads. In fact, none of the ones where I live in south Manchester are.
Amendments 160A and 160B would require the Home Secretary to introduce statutory guidance on the use of lock-ons during protests and on other public order policing more generally. I completely agree that the police should have access to comprehensive and up-to-date guidance on public order, including on how to handle protestors who deploy lock-on devices. It is also important to acknowledge that the police already have specialist teams trained to remove protestors from lock-ons. These teams continually develop their knowledge and training to keep pace with innovations in locking on, and the police themselves are best placed to develop operational guidance on this matter. On Amendment 160B, the College of Policing is conducting a fundamental review of its authorised professional practice with regard to public order policing. It will create a single landing page that can be quickly updated, ensuring that all public order officers can access the latest training and guidance.
Amendment 160C would require the Government to introduce a national monitoring tool to monitor the deployment of protest removal-trained officers and share best practice in public order policing. Again, I do not think this amendment is necessary. The National Police Coordination Centre already co-ordinates and monitors the use of and requests for protest removal-trained officers across the UK, and the national public order and public safety lead is already working on an evaluation of the requirement for specialist protest officers, following the recent recommendation by the HMICFRS.
I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, for his comprehensive explanation of Section 60 stop and search powers, given his vast experience in this area. On the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, the power will allow police—I think he recognised this—to stop and search an individual or a vehicle where the officer has reasonable suspicion that the individual or vehicle is carrying items made, adapted or intended to be used to cause an obstruction to the highway, as a public nuisance or lock-on offence, or to obstruct major authorised transport works. That is much as in the way the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, laid out.
The noble Lord, Lord Paddick, asserted the police’s opposition to the lock-on provisions. I want to quote Sir Stephen House, the deputy commissioner of the Met Police, who said less than eight weeks ago:
“The government’s proposed amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will support the policing response to the deployment of lock-ons in protests. The increased use of lock-ons by certain protest groups has added to the challenging nature of public order policing and created significant disruption to the public over recent years. We have seen individuals lock themselves to the drive shafts of vehicles, locked together in tubes encased in concrete, locked onto structures at height, and glued to roads. Removing these lock-ons safely requires specialist policing teams to be deployed to what can be high risk environments, taking time and significant resources. This is time that our officers are taken away from policing their local communities and local policing priorities.”
This House has a choice. It can stand by the British public, who respect and value the right to peaceful protest but recognise that the protestors should not
have free rein to trample on the rights of others; or it can send a signal to the militants who believe that their right to protest trumps all other rights and that there should be no limit on the amount of disruption they cause, whatever the cost to the wider public.
These are people taking their children to school, going shopping, visiting loved ones in hospital, going to Heathrow on their holidays, trying to get to the hospitals that they work in. I live mostly in the north of England and honestly, this House should look at itself. The arguments deployed here tonight are about the middle classes trying to stop working people going to work. I know where I stand on this.