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Alun Michael: As I said, at the moment, the procedure is a lengthy one. It can take from three to six hours. Under the procedure proposed in the clause, an
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officer who decides that he cannot silence an alarm without entering the premises by force can go to a magistrate immediately. He leaves the notification on the premises and returns as soon as the warrant is obtained to silence the alarm. The procedure for getting a signature from a magistrate does not take long. It can be faster in the hours of darkness, when the poor magistrate is tucked up in bed. I have been approached in those circumstances. The proposed procedure can happen extremely quickly and will avoid the present delay.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 78 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 79
Powers of entry: supplementary
Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.
Miss McIntosh: I wish to make a small point. Subsection (4) mentions:
''The officer and any person who enters the premises''.
Only an authorised officer should enter the premises. Is the clause suggesting that someone is accompanying the authorised officer? That seems to completely contradict clause 78.
In full, the subsection says:
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''The officer and any person who enters the premises with him by virtue of subsection (3) must not cause more damage to or disturbance at the premises than is necessary for the purpose of silencing the alarm.''
It adds:
''Any expenses reasonably incurred by the local authority . . . may be recovered by the authority from the responsible person.''
Will the Minister explain what happens if even minimal damage has been done to the property? Who is responsible for making good that damage? Who will pay the cost of restoring the property to the state it was in before the damage was caused by forced entry?
Mr. Evans: I want to make a similar point about clause 79(5)(b). Will the Minister say why he feels it necessary to have brackets around
''(so far as is reasonably practicable)''?
The subsection says that the officer must leave the premises
''as effectively secured against entry as he found them.''
I assume that the officer entering the premises to silence the alarm is not going to cause more damage than they reasonably need to. On the point about securing the premises on leaving them, the point of having an alarm is that people want to protect their premises. The last thing that they would want is to find out that when the alarm—
It being twenty-five minutes past Eleven o'clock, The Chairman, adjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at half-past Two o'clock.
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
Chairmen: †David Taylor, Mr. Eric Forth
†Ainger, Mr. Nick (Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury)
†Bradley, Peter (The Wrekin) (Lab)
†Doughty, Sue (Guildford) (LD)
†Drew, Mr. David (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op)
†Evans, Mr. Nigel (Ribble Valley) (Con)
Follett, Barbara (Stevenage) (Lab)
†Green, Matthew (Ludlow) (LD)
†Hall, Mr. Patrick (Bedford) (Lab)
†McDonagh, Siobhain (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab)
†McIntosh, Miss Anne (Vale of York) (Con)
†Michael, Alun (Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality)
Morley, Mr. Elliot (Minister for the Environment and Agri-environment)
†Ruffley, Mr. David (Bury St. Edmunds) (Con)
†Simmonds, Mr. Mark (Boston and Skegness) (Con)
†Tipping, Paddy (Sherwood) (Lab)
†Turner, Mr. Neil (Wigan) (Lab)
†Wright, Iain (Hartlepool) (Lab)
Nerys Welfoot, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
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