Banning orders need a champion
During the Christmas period, the Home Office announced that one of the last measures of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, which brought you the joys of Alcohol Disorder Zones (remember them?), was to come into effect later this year.
This is the Drinking Banning Order, about which I wrote last October. Since then I have been contacted all the way from Italy by Harry Shindler, former general secretary of the National Association of Licensed House Managers (NALHM) who was instrumental in getting the Ban the Thugs Act on to the statute book.
He also laments the possible re-peal of this useful Act, which allows licensees to ask the courts to ban a person who has committed a violent act on licensed premises from entering those premises or any other pub specified in the Order for up to two years.
Alas, this will all be swept away under the new law. Drinking banning orders will indeed prevent a person from using licensed premises — but the licensed trade will have no say in the matter. Such an order relies upon the police or the courts and there has to be evidence of an offence committed while under the influence of drink. It will, therefore, not apply to a known problem customer who lashes out because he is refused a drink by the licensee.
This was clearly recognised in Scotland, because they have built the Ban the Thugs Act into their primary alcohol legislation — the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. So it is part and parcel of the law and cannot be disturbed by anything that happens south of the border.
But in its haste to attack the problems of excessive drinking, the Home Office has overturned the one piece of legislation that the licensed trade could use to persuade the courts that it wanted an end to violent behaviour in its own premises.
What is needed is a new champion to ensure that this vital piece of legislation is not overturned by the new law.
There is nothing I can see that would prevent the two types of Order working in tandem. They do not overlap, because drinking banning orders require the offender to attend remedial courses to overcome his drinking problems. The Ban the Thugs Act merely means that licensees can rest more easily because a violent person will not enter their premises, or if he does will be subject to further punishment.
