UNHCR Syrian Refugees Programme

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I am pleased to take part in the debate. I commend the motion and the way in which it was moved. I unreservedly welcome the efforts of the Home Secretary and many Front-Bench colleagues to respond to the crisis. I wanted to take part in the debate because the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), who speaks for the Opposition, moved the motion in a conciliatory and considered manner. I thought over the past couple of weeks that that was not necessarily the tone being taken by people outside. I felt strongly that there was a danger that a Government who had done an extraordinary amount in relation to the crisis might end up on the wrong side of the argument.

The Government’s basic position is absolutely correct, as all colleagues have tended to endorse. It is best to help in the region where people are concentrated, and the extraordinary efforts being made by neighbours have been helped by the most generous contribution that this country has ever made to such a crisis abroad. However, as times and needs change, a bit of flexibility is not always a bad thing. Therefore, the response to what the UN has been saying has been important.

As all colleagues have said, it is important to work with the UN. We have been its biggest supporters in going around the world asking for higher contributions to meet its appeals. As colleagues have mentioned, a number of countries have not stumped up. It would have been difficult, had we done all this, if the UN had turned on us and said, “You’re not doing enough.” It is good, therefore, that we have reached this position. It is better than just taking a slightly smaller number of people. Targeting the people we can help most, particularly those caught up in sexual violence, bearing in mind all that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has done in relation to this, makes an even more important point. The help is targeted, and I think that the response has been absolutely right.

On a wider issue, I too, as colleagues would know and expect, have visited those who have been working with refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. There is hardly enough that we can say about the generosity and hospitality of those countries, or about the skill and expertise of our own aid workers—often technical specialists in the camps and outside. I visited a small town in Jordan where people had been decamped. They are in the local economy and that puts pressures on as well, to which we have been responding. However, the extraordinary skills that people have been displaying to assist those who work for the NGOs and who work through DFID, have all played a part. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has done a tremendous job in keeping up interest in relation to that. Therefore, the combination of what the UK is giving by working locally and the response here has been particularly effective.

One or two colleagues say that we should take special notice of Christian victims. I have not spoken much on the matter before. It was a policy I was looking after, but I want to make two or three quick points because it is an important issue. It is undeniably true that the Christian community in the middle east has been under particularly severe pressure in a region where lots of people have suffered, but the answer is not to single them out but to say that the rule of law has to protect all. The importance of that is that it is not being politically correct; it is ensuring that Christians are not identified with the false claim of the extremists that it is a western construct and a western religion. To give any sense to that and to say, however well meaning, that there is a welcome for them in a “Christian country” feeds that narrative and assists the extremists. Therefore, I urge colleagues and people outside who are rightly concerned about the Christian community to take a lead from his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and Prince Ghazi of Jordan, who are working with Muslim leaders in the region to recognise the particular issues facing Christians and to work through those leaders to provide relief there.

I want to make a final point on the conflict itself—[Interruption.] The trick to avoiding coughing during a speech is not to eat yoghurt-flavoured peanuts to keep you going. It is not the yoghurt that gets you; it is the peanuts. I shall return to my serious point about the ending of the conflict. I was in Geneva yesterday with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and I took the opportunity to meet one or two friends who were involved in the talks. The news coming out of the talks is poor. The situation is extremely tough: the Syrian regime does not feel the need to concede, because not enough pressure has been placed upon it.

We are absolutely right to support the Syrian opposition coalition. As colleagues know, I take the view—one that is not shared by all—that they should be allowed a greater opportunity to have the means to defend themselves against the barbaric attacks, because changing the balance on the ground could help the negotiation process and thereby bring about a quicker end to the conflict. It is essential that we focus all our attention on that. Looking after the refugees is important but it is a symptom, not the cause.

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend’s analysis. Of course it is right that we should address the problem in the surrounding countries, but real success will involve getting humanitarian access into Syria as well. What more can we in this country do to put pressure on the regime to allow such access?

[Alistair Burt]

This is genuinely very difficult. The regime thinks that it is winning. We talk about there being no foreign intervention in Syria, but there is. The boots on the ground are from Iran and from Hezbollah, and support is coming from Russia. In addition, the Gulf countries have supported those groups that they believe to be in a position to remove the regime, but they should be focusing all that attention on the official opposition, rather than on the extremists. Starvation and sieges are being used as weapons, which is one of the reasons why it is difficult to get stuff into the country. The regime has played a desperate role in relation to the citizens who have been caught up in the conflict. I believe that extra pressure needs to be placed on the regime. We also need to work with Russia, because it is in that country’s interests that the conflict should end sooner rather than later. The sad truth is, however, that it will end only when that suits other people’s interests, and not, alas, the interests of the people of Syria. We should never lose sight of that fact.

The support of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary for the people of Syria has been remarkable throughout the conflict, and it is important to stick with them. It is worth working in this way. Only this week, the Tunisian people approved a constitution after three years of difficulty but without the kind of turmoil that we have seen elsewhere. I still believe that, long term, the Arab awakening will work, but there is, alas, much pain still to be experienced in the region. What the United Kingdom is doing to relieve that pain is quite remarkable, and the Home Secretary deserves every praise for bringing forward her proposals today.

Family Annihilation

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2013 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to introduce this rather grim subject under your chairmanship, Mr Amess, given your committed support for family life.

Ten-year-old Ben Philpotts will always be remembered by his teachers at Trevisker community primary school in Cornwall with his hand eagerly in the air and with a beaming smile. Ben was a positive spirit, very popular and a much-loved member of his school community in St Eval, near Wadebridge. He was a boy who showed enthusiasm for everything that he undertook. He was a keen member of his local football team and was a natural sportsman.

Ben’s uncle, my constituent, Don Philpotts came to my constituency surgery a few months ago to tell me his tragic story. Ben’s short life ended on 18 January 2010 when his father, Harry, bludgeoned him to death with a sledgehammer, causing severe head injuries from which he quickly died. Harry had also murdered Ben’s mother, Patricia, and later set fire to the family home, resulting in widespread burns to himself, from which he died a few days later.

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate on a tragic event in Cornwall that horrified the local community. Does he agree that we must do everything that we can to protect vulnerable people from such incidents?

[Jonathan Evans]

I most certainly do. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s work on this case. Part of the family lives in my constituency, but the events took place in his constituency, so this is a classic example of working together.

For some time before the events, Ben’s father had been receiving treatment for mental health problems from Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. During that treatment, Harry made threats against his wife and son, but those threats were not taken seriously by those treating him and were never communicated to his wife on the grounds of patient confidentiality. The case was later considered in a serious case review compiled by the local safeguarding children board in Cornwall. The report highlighted that Ben’s father had experienced mental health problems for two years and once had delusional thoughts about his son. The report concluded that no evidence could be found that mental health staff had considered the implications for Ben of his father’s return to live at the family home or considered that Harry’s co-operation with treatment to manage his delusional and paranoid systems was neither consistent nor maintained. On the contrary, no agency reported any child protection concerns regarding Ben or registered any concerns for his safety at the time of his death.

Although my constituent, Ben’s uncle, remains deeply dissatisfied with the failure to properly assess the risk to Ben and his mother, or to inform her of the delusional and paranoid thoughts that her husband had expressed to mental health staff, he is also anxious that there should be much more awareness of the public policy challenges of such cases. The issues cut across several areas of Government policy, and my aim today is to draw wider attention to some common themes that arise in such cases and to encourage the Government to consider a cross-departmental approach to understanding and responding to those issues.

Ben’s murder was front-page news in the media and daily newspapers. We can all recall cases that appear to have a similar theme. Richard and Clair Smith from Pudsey and their children, Aaron and Ben, were described as “the perfect family.” They similarly made news headlines two years ago when Richard stabbed and strangled his wife, before stabbing and suffocating his sons, aged nine and one. He then set fire to the family home, dying of smoke inhalation. Richard also had mental health problems. He was described as an obsessive and driven man who appeared to have been motivated by depression to seek the destruction of both himself and his entire family.

Just days before the Pudsey murders, another father reportedly turned on his family. Tobias Day, from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, had recently lost his job as a policeman. He killed his wife, Samantha, and seven-year-old daughter, Genevieve, and he tried to kill his two other children, Kimberly and Adam, before finally taking his own life. Just over a decade ago, Robert Mochrie murdered his wife and four children in Barry, South Wales, before calling the school bus operator to say that his 10-year-old disabled daughter would not be attending school that week; he also cancelled the milk. Later he hanged himself, surrounded by his murdered family. He had also been previously treated for depression.

“Family annihilation” is the generic term applied to such cases in the USA and has been adopted here. In essence, the cases are those in which a parent—almost invariably a man—murders his partner and his own children before going on to commit suicide.

Professor David Wilson and Dr Elizabeth Yardley of the centre for applied criminology at Birmingham City university have undertaken a historical analysis of such cases going back to the 1980s. Professor Wilson is also editor of The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, which recently published some preliminary findings from his research. I am grateful to Professor Wilson for his guidance on this debate.

Professor Wilson and his colleagues examined 71 cases in England and Wales between 1980 and 2012—59 involving fathers and 12 cases in which the mother was the murderer. In almost all the cases involving men, the wife or partner was included in the murders, but in the cases where the mother committed the crimes, the husband or partner was not a victim. An example of the latter is the Donnison case in 2010 in Heathfield, East Sussex, which neighbours the Minister’s constituency. That lends weight to the proposition that family annihilation might predominantly be about a personal crisis of masculinity.

Professor Wilson’s team has suggested that there are certain similarities that subdivide such crimes into four broad categories. Anomic cases are those in which the family is seen as directly linked to the economic and financial success of the father. When that is threatened, the perpetrator responds by seeking to destroy himself, his home and his entire family. Self-righteous cases are those in which the murderer blames the mother for a family breakdown. The pre-eminent role of the father is viewed by the murderer as pivotal to his own image and concept of family, which causes him to obliterate his family. Disappointed cases are those in which the father believes the family have turned against him and, for instance, failed to follow his strictures on family life or religious matters. Finally, paranoid cases are those in which the offender harbours mental health delusions about his family.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

The Government acknowledges that victims face a variety of pressures when leaving violent relationships. In order to provide a specialist response for hard-to-reach victims, we have, for example, funded projects aimed specifically at those at risk of forced marriage and female genital mutilation, to raise awareness of the law, legal rights and support services. They can also be helped through the five freephone helplines the Home Secretary referred to earlier.

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

21. What steps she is taking to help tackle unlicensed sexual entertainment venues.

[The Minister for Crime Prevention (Norman Baker)]

The Policing and Crime Act 2009 determined that decisions on licensing applications for sexual entertainment venues are best made at a local level. It also sets out the limited circumstances where such a licence would not be required. Hosting regular sexual entertainment without the relevant licence would represent a significant breach of broader licensing conditions, and local authorities are responsible for monitoring and enforcing those requirements.

[Stephen Gilbert]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that reply. Some pubs and clubs in my constituency have been regularly exploiting the loophole in the 2009 Act to which he refers. That puts patrons and performers at risk. Will he meet me to discuss how we can tighten up regulations in this important area?

[Norman Baker]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns. There is a balance to be struck between having rigorous and appropriate licensing conditions and imposing unnecessary bureaucratic burdens, but I will, of course, be very pleased to meet with my hon. Friend to discuss this further.

Sexual Entertainment Licence Exemptions

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr Howarth. I am grateful to the two other hon. Members who have joined me for this important debate.

I want to say first what the debate is not. This is not a debate that is led by prudish intolerance in relation to sexual entertainment. I have never been to a lap-dancing club, and my view is that real men do not buy women for entertainment, but, as a Liberal, I accept that if adults want to make such choices, that is up to them. The debate is about ensuring consistency in the application of the regulation of sexual entertainment on our high streets. It is about ensuring that performers in and patrons of sexual entertainment venues—lap-dancing clubs—are properly protected and that local communities are involved in the decision-making process about where and when such venues should operate.

The fundamental issue is simple. If a permanent lap-dancing club opens under the licensing regime adopted by the previous Government in the Licensing Act 2003 and the Policing and Crime Act 2009, the community is involved in making the decision and there would be significant safeguards in place for those who work in and visit the establishments. The 2009 Act, however, provides a specific exemption, stating that premises providing sexual entertainment on an infrequent basis—on no more than 11 occasions in a 12-month period—do not require a licence and, therefore, do not need to offer the same level of safeguards to performers and patrons. In Newquay, the exemption has led to lap-dancing nights being offered on that so-called occasional basis in direct competition to a licensed venue, but without any of the obligations that the licensed venue needs to meet.

For many years, I have had the pleasure of working closely with the people and businesses of Newquay to secure a future for the town that is sustainable and successful and to tackle some of the excesses of the night-time economy, which over recent years have blighted the town. To be clear, Newquay is a fantastic town. It sits within a stunning natural environment and has, over the decades, welcomed millions of visitors to enjoy its natural beauty and the entertainment that it has to offer. The town has been through many transformations, from a traditional fishing port and centre for the export of china clay, to being the surfing capital of Britain and a terrific, family-friendly visitor destination. Each time Newquay has reinvented itself, it has breathed new life into the streets and delivered new opportunities for the people who live, work and visit there.

Tourism is now one of the town’s primary industries and attracts a wide variety of visitors. The trade brings in much needed revenue for businesses in the town, which include hotels, bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants, surf hire shops, bakeries, designer-clothing outlets and the usual range of excursion and entertainment providers to be found in seaside resorts such as Newquay. Collectively, those businesses employ huge numbers of local people and provide year-round income. Over the past decade or so, however, the town has seen a rise in the number of sexual entertainment venues—or, in the jargon, SEVs— and at one point, Newquay, with a resident population of a little more than 20,000, had five lap-dancing licences in operation. The proliferation of lap-dancing venues within the town centre has been a major concern of local people for a number of years. Clearly, the venues were there to cater for the fivefold increase in population that occurs during the summer months. They have, however, attracted significant antisocial behaviour, as well as more serious crime and disorder.

The previous Government’s 2009 Policing and Crime Act helped to put the community back in control. The town council, Cornwall council, the Devon and Cornwall police, the fire brigade, determined local residents and I have worked effectively together to use the powers under that Act to reduce the number of venues to only one licensed SEV, and to ensure that performers in and patrons of such venues are protected. That has made a huge difference to the atmosphere in the town centre. Five years ago, many people told me that they felt scared to go into the town centre in the evening; families rightly complained about the ubiquity of sexualised images in the main street and on the roads leading to the town’s beaches. Working together, we representatives of the community have been able to address such concerns with great success.

Lap-dancing clubs are regulated by the local authority—in my case, Cornwall council—and they are subject to stringent requirements that protect patrons and performers, while allowing residents and community representatives a voice in the location of the venues. Cornwall council has adopted powers under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, as amended by the 2009 Act, in order to regulate sex shops, sex cinemas and sexual entertainment venues. The amended legislation delivers more power to local residents, giving them a much greater say in where SEV licences can be issued. It allows the local community to object to great effect when an application is made, based on whether the location is appropriate. The 2009 Act, however, also allows premises to hold the exact type of sexual entertainment that normally requires an SEV licence without a licence and without safeguards, if it is held less frequently than once a month. My understanding is that the exemption was designed to allow for one-off entertainment events, such as the attendance of a strippergram at a birthday party. Such provision was made with the best intentions, but there is a real risk that it is too broad and open to abuse.

One example concerns a site within Newquay, for which the owner had applied for a licence to become a permanent lap-dancing venue. During the application process, a considerable number of objections from local residents and businesses were received, and Cornwall council refused the licence. The venue in question, however, has now begun to operate sexual entertainment events under the exemption in the Act. This involves not the occasional strippergram but the operation of a full SEV during a whole 24-hour window once a month, with full nudity and none of the protections and safeguards that performers and patrons should rightly be able to expect. It cannot be right that, when a venue has been refused a lap-dancing licence by the local authority, following objections from local people and businesses, it can then flout the will of the community and its representatives and go ahead in offering sexual entertainment without any of the protections mentioned.

We are debating the matter today because it raises serious questions about how fair the exemption is for those businesses that comply with the full licensing requirements for SEVs. Such venues comply with a large number of conditions that regulate their business, which I will come to shortly, but the cost is substantial—not only the cost of complying with the regulations imposed by the licensing authority, but the cost of the application itself. What must an SEV licence holder think when a nearby property, which has failed in getting a licence, still proceeds to stage sexual entertainment in direct competition and without the relevant safeguards that the licence holder must fund?

The business environment in Newquay, as in many of our towns and cities, is a competitive one, with significant numbers chasing a limited market, so, logically, were an SEV to be surrounded by a number of highly competitive premises that have one owner, it might well be challenged by more than one of those infrequent, occasional events each month. In such a case, those who have sought to comply with the law would see little point in going through the licensing regime, and perhaps switch to less regular and unregulated sexual entertainment events. I do not wish to be alarmist, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that a town such as Newquay, which saw a surge in lap-dancing venues, but tackled the issue head-on and imposed significant restrictions, could again see a large rise in unregulated sexual entertainment events, all happening in spite of the wishes of the community, Parliament or the local council. That is wrong.

The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) knows that the regulations covering SEVs are not light touch. They rightly impose stringent conditions for the protection of all those involved in sexual entertainment. Those conditions are stringent because there is so much at risk in sexual entertainment. It is of great concern to me that expansion of unregulated sexual entertainment could put vulnerable people at risk. SEV licences ensure that the impact on the surrounding area is limited.

Some people will always object to SEV licences being issued, regardless of where they are and what measures are put in place to protect the surrounding community, but the licensing regime introduced by the previous Government allows local authorities to introduce significant protection, and the use of occasional or infrequent exemptions within the 2009 Act undermine the previous Government’s intention. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will confirm the present Government’s intention to ensure that venues are properly regulated and managed, and that performers and patrons are properly protected. For example, an SEV licence will explicitly prohibit the soliciting of custom in the street and the general locality including, in Newquay’s case, the whole town. That anti-touting rule ensures that SEVs can operate within communities with minimal impact on other businesses, passing trade and house prices.

That is particularly important in places such as Newquay that have strived in recent years to become more family-friendly resorts. Local businesses and residents have worked successfully and hard on that. My hon. Friend will be aware of initiatives such as Newquay Safe, which has brought together all stakeholders in the town to tackle anti-social behaviour and to reduce the cost of policing Newquay at the same time as reducing the amount of crime that is reported and recorded there. We have had significant success.

SEV licences require the interior of lap-dancing venues to be hidden from the street so that sexual entertainment events inside can be seen only by patrons and not by passers-by. If that requirement was not in place in places such as Newquay, the entertainment could be seen by anyone, from children on the way to the beach to pensioners on their way to local tea rooms. SEV licences place restrictions on advertising, and it is easy to understand why the regular holding of sexual entertainment events in unlicensed premises within the exemption might lead to images or advertisements that could damage an area’s reputation and put sexualised images in front of part of the population that simply does not want to see them.

Perhaps the most important provision in SEV licences is safeguards for the welfare of performers and patrons, which are exactly what the exemption does not provide. I think we all accept that lap dancing is an unusual and intimate environment, and the availability of alcohol at venues means that there is a significant danger that performers and patrons may find themselves in difficult situations. SEV licences include incredibly strict provisions to place the entertainer in the safest environment possible in the circumstances. That is achieved predominantly through a strict 3-foot rule that performers must remain at least 3 feet from patrons. That is an essential protection that reduces the risk of harassment or abuse of sexual entertainers and reduces the risk for patrons. Should even limited contact be allowed or suggested, the patron is at risk of allegations of a criminal act. With patrons and performers prohibited from touching each other by maintaining the 3-foot rule, there is a clear dividing line that affords safeguards to both parties.

All aspects of sexual entertainment must take place in open, supervised areas or in private in the presence of designated staff and under the umbrella of closed circuit television. SEV licences also require all restrictions to be enforced by designated supervisors or floor-walkers who must be fully trained and in such number to guarantee the safety of those inside the venue. If we are to have lap dancing in our towns and cities, the safeguards are vital to ensure that the experience is entertainment, not exploitation.

Venues operating within the exemptions of the 2009 Act need not adhere to those conditions. My local police superintendent, John Green, said:

“What has caused me concern is, as a consequence of the lack of regulation, the risk of harm and vulnerability issues for those girls at work at such an event.”

Superintendent Green went on to say of the lap-dancing nights that were held in Newquay under the exemption in the 2009 Act:

“Whilst the girls felt able to ‘look after themselves’, the general conduct, if held under the auspices of a SEV, would have breached almost all the conditions.”

Those real concerns from the local police sit alongside the real concerns from town councillors and Cornwall councillors who have worked to ensure that if we have the industry in our towns and cities, it must be as safe and as properly managed as we can achieve. Sadly, it is conceivable that a sexual entertainer working in an unfamiliar venue that does not afford its patrons and performers the protection of having gone through the licensed SEV process could be subject to a serious sexual assault, and possibly even worse. We should not allow legislation that is easy to change to put any individual in harm’s way in that respect.

What can be done? My hon. Friend the Minister will be pleased to hear that much can be done. The exemption was made in good faith so its removal may seem to be excessive. However, it is entirely conceivable that occasional sexual entertainment events could simply be subject to the same stringent requirements of the sexual entertainment licence process. That would require minimal legislative effort because the existing law allows the relevant national authority to order, amend or repeal the exemption clause without new primary legislation. That is a key point. The Government could deliver that with minimal effort. My hon. Friend need not remove the infrequency clause altogether. He could simply ensure that when it is used it meets the standards of the nearest SEV licence that has been issued by the relevant local authority.

An alternative that Cornwall council’s licensing department has suggested is to look at a mechanism similar to temporary event notices that are in existence under the Licensing Act 2003. That would give the local authority and the police an opportunity to consider and to object when applications were made for venues for one-off or infrequent sexual entertainment. Such a regime could also require premises to meet certain criteria providing adequate protection for performers and patrons. Those who wanted to stage sexual entertainment at occasional venues would have to meet the requirements placed on more permanent venues, ensuring safeguards against sexual assault or false allegations being made. Crucially in that scenario, local authorities could comment on and even refuse an application if they thought it appropriate to do so, or to add further restrictions. That could restore the vital input of local residents when deciding when, where and in what way such events take place in their communities.

The problem is not just in Newquay. In major cities throughout the country the sexual entertainment industry is exploiting this loophole in the legislation and is moving underground. We want to avoid that at all costs. The Government have the opportunity to act early. The Minister could make a significant difference, and the problem could be sorted out long before whole towns are teeming with competing, unlicensed sexual events, before the views of whole communities on whether, where and how such establishments exist are sidelined, and before anyone is put in harm’s way. My request to my hon. Friend is that he undertakes to look at the matter urgently. A small step from the Government could make a significant difference.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Browne]

Thank you for your guidance, Mr Howarth. That is an extremely flattering comparison with someone who is arguably the father of liberalism. I apologise; I was drawn down that path by the hon. Lady’s observations, but no doubt I strayed too far along it.

The Government want to ensure that the licensing conditions are rigorous and appropriate, but not so tightly prescribed that there is no room for flexibility or initiative or to respond to particular local demands. It is right that venues seeking to provide regular and frequent events of such nature are subject to tight and appropriate licensing conditions.

The specific exemptions to which my hon. Friend referred apply only, as he said, to those establishments that need not comply with the framework of regulations because they accord with three stipulations. First, there have not been more than 11 occasions on which relevant entertainment has been provided within 12 months. In other words, the exemption would not allow an establishment to put on such entertainment on a monthly basis over a year; it would need to be less frequent than that on average. Secondly, no such occasion lasts for more than 24 hours. It seems hard to imagine that an event of that type would last for more than 24 hours, but perhaps that shows a lack of imagination on my part, because that stipulation is in the legislation. Thirdly, no such occasion begins within the period of one month beginning from the end of any previous occasion. A person running such an establishment could not, for example, use their maximum quota of 11 exemptions on 11 consecutive Saturdays in the summer months. That would not be appropriate.

The exemptions are hard to abuse. They are narrow in range and represent intentionally limited circumstances. A venue cannot, for example, hold a regular event—even a monthly event—without falling foul of the regulations.

[Stephen Gilbert]

I remain grateful for the interest and the enthusiasm the Minister has shown in the debate and on his recent visit to Newquay. An owner may have more than one establishment in a town so, although the infrequency rules that he set out might apply to an owner with an individual establishment, does he accept that an owner with three or four establishments would effectively be able to run as many events as they liked over a period of time such as the summer?

[Mr Browne]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention, because he makes an important point, which might not have been considered by Ministers and those drafting the legislation on their behalf in 2009. I shall come on to that point in a moment, because I want to address it head on. Before I do so, however, I shall complete what I was saying before his intervention.

The reason for the narrowly drawn exemptions is because the Government recognise the virtue in flexibility—interestingly, when the legislation was drafted the previous Government recognised this—as we want businesses and local communities to have discretion and room for manoeuvre. Whenever legislation of this type is drawn up, one-off occasions that may not have been envisaged by the House come to light, and it can be frustrating not to have flexibility built into the system for such circumstances. Exemptions were included because it was recognised that not all premises that provide “relevant entertainment” should be classed as sexual entertainment venues. It was argued during the passage of the 2009 Act that premises such as a pub hosting a one-off birthday party at which a strippergram has been booked, for example, should not require regulation in the same manner as lap-dancing clubs that offer entertainment every night, or even every week or month. Most people would recognise that distinction.

Premises that hold infrequent events continue to be regulated under the Licensing Act 2003. Hosting regular sexual entertainment without the relevant licence would represent a significant breach of licensing conditions, so there is a licensing framework, but it is not as prescriptive as that in the 2009 Act. The previous Government and this Government view that as the right balance to strike. However, we now get to the nub of the point made by my hon. Friend in his speech and in his intervention, which is whether it is possible for ingenious bar owners to use the exemptions in a way that gives them more scope to provide regular entertainment of a sexual nature than was envisaged by Ministers and Parliament when the legislation was introduced in 2009.

My hon. Friend said that an individual could own four or five venues in one town and put on a sexual entertainment evening every Saturday night through the summer season—May to September—at one of the venues, advertising it in the others. The individual could do that within the flexibility afforded to him or her by the 2009 Act, and could make a virtue to holiday makers of the entertainment being offered at the end of their week-long holiday, even promoting it as part of a series of activities across the four or five bars. If other people in the town who were running sexual entertainment evenings or events had straightforwardly registered and complied with the Act but did not seek to operate within the flexibility afforded, competition could be created between them and those complying with the Act but using the exemptions in a way that was not envisaged by Ministers and Parliament.

Perhaps such individuals’ behaviour is not as assiduous and deliberate as I have described, but it goes beyond the spirit of the exemptions. It happens in Newquay and, I suspect, in other parts of the country where large numbers of people go on holiday, particularly young visitors, including groups of young males—or in some cases perhaps not so young. In those places a judgment is made about the market for such entertainment.

I am happy to extend to my hon. Friend the offer of a meeting with officials and, subject to his discussion with them, perhaps a meeting with me as well, not to consider, for the reasons I and others have given, how to scrap the exemption, because we see virtue in flexibility—and there would be a risk of unintended consequences if we removed it altogether—but to discuss whether the flexibility is subject to abuse and there is scope to make changes so that it is exercised in line with the spirit of what Parliament intended when the legislation was enacted in 2009. I want to sound a cautionary note to my hon. Friend, as we need to see how this can best work in practice.

The Government legislate and seek to introduce regulations the whole time, and there is pressure on the parliamentary timetable, so I cannot make my hon. Friend a specific offer this morning, but I recognise how well informed he is: he has raised a genuine concern, which is shared by many residents in Newquay, and no doubt in other parts of the country. We want a licensing regime that has flexibility but which is not abused. I am not saying that anyone is abusing it by breaking the law—but if they do so they should face the consequences—but that they are abusing it, not so brazenly, in respect of the spirit of the legislation. The safeguards that the previous Government sought to put in place to protect residents no longer have the intended effect.

As I say, I extend the offer, if my hon. Friend would like to accept it, to have such a meeting with officials, to explore a range of areas including whether there is potential for other licensing regimes or changes that the Government might consider to licensing more generally that could apply in these circumstances. We wish to ensure that communities receive the protection that they need and that local councils, acting on their behalf, are able to make decisions that people running sexual entertainment venues are required to respect and abide by, rather than bypass.

I thank you, Mr Howarth, for chairing the debate, and I thank the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North for her party’s interest in the issue which, I believe, reflects Parliament’s interest in ensuring that we have the right legislation. Most of all, I thank my hon. Friend for his assiduous service on behalf of his constituents. We look forward to hearing further representations as he strives so admirably to serve the people of Newquay in his capacity as their Member of Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

I certainly recognise the problems linked to alcohol-fuelled crime; there were about 900,000 violent crimes linked to alcohol in 2010-11. I also know that this issue has been flagged up before by the right hon. Gentleman in debate and by the work of his Committee. The Government are committed to tackling the harms of alcohol, and we recognise that the availability of cheap alcohol is a significant issue that needs addressing. He will recognise that some complex issues are involved in terms of regulation and other aspects. We are continuing to examine this matter carefully and closely, recognising that price is a relevant and important factor in dealing with this problem.

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

In an earlier answer the Minister referred to the success of the Newquay partnership in tackling alcohol-related disorder. That partnership would be hugely more successful if there were a specific offence of urinating in the street. Will the Government consider the introduction of that offence?

[James Brokenshire]

My hon. Friend has highlighted an issue of wanton antisocial behaviour, and I was struck by how the police are having to deal with some antisocial problems in his community. There are offences on the statute book that could be used to deal with the problem that he has identified, but if he is willing to write to me, I will certainly look into this matter in further detail.

Alcohol (Under-18s)

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 1st November 2011 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

Thank you very much, Mrs Riordan, for calling me to speak. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time in a Westminster Hall debate. I suspect that it is not what I am about to say that is causing colleagues to leave Westminster Hall so quickly.

At the outset, I declare an interest, in that the father of the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (James Brokenshire), who is the Minister responding to the debate, is a constituent of mine. I hope that that fact might sway the Minister when he makes his remarks.

This debate has been prompted by continuing concerns in Newquay, which is in my constituency, about under-age drinking, including its health impacts, its role in causing antisocial behaviour and the part that parents can play in providing children with alcohol for consumption in an unsupervised setting.

The Chamber will be aware that, like many other seaside towns and many of our city centres, Newquay has had its share of problems associated with binge drinking. The Chamber may be interested to know that 5,000 unaccompanied 16 and 17-year-olds arrive in Newquay every year during a four-week period, mostly to celebrate the end of their GCSEs. Sadly, this annual pilgrimage—some might call it a rite of passage—has become associated with drink-related antisocial behaviour.

The tragic deaths of 16-year-old Paddy Higgins and 18-year-old Andrew Curwell in 2009 served as a wake-up call to the local community in Newquay that action needed to be taken to protect children and young people when they visit Newquay to prevent similar accidents occurring in the future. Newquay has risen to that challenge. The formation of the Newquay Safe Partnership has seen organisations and individuals including Devon and Cornwall police, Cornwall county council, residents, local businesses and organisations representing pubs and clubs, the off-licence trade and providers of accommodation working together to tackle alcohol misuse and irresponsible behaviour.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, as has been stated in a recent report by the think-tank Demos, parental involvement is vital? That report shows that, if income, education, ethnicity and gender are discounted, styles of parenting are very influential, and it also showed that a combination of discipline, affection and parental involvement ensure that 16-year-olds are less likely to engage in dangerous drinking.

[Stephen Gilbert]

The hon. Lady has pre-empted a point that I was going to make later, namely that in many cases parents underestimate their influence on their children. She is right to quote the Demos research.

Public services in Newquay have risen to the challenge of dealing with under-age drinking. We have seen the introduction of Challenge 25, with staff being given training to spot fake identity cards; there is a confidential phone number to report proxy buying, which is the buying of alcohol by adults for children; and a code of conduct has been introduced for bar crawls. The police have introduced a “follow you home” scheme, which sees the local Newquay force inform parents and local authorities in an individual’s home town about instances of antisocial behaviour that take place on holiday. There are also new minimum safety standards for local providers of accommodation, and there is concerted police action to seize alcohol in the streets and on public transport. Coast Safe, an alcohol awareness and seaside safety lesson package for teenagers, was launched yesterday. It was put together with the help of Newquay schoolchildren, and it is sponsored by St Austell Brewery. It aims to provide a resource for schools across the country to reduce loss of life and serious injury among young people by encouraging sensible drinking and responsible enjoyment in seaside towns.

The cost of crime in Newquay in 2008-09 was more than £9 million. The success of the Newquay Safe Partnership is that it has reduced that cost by more than £250,000. Nuisance behaviour is down by 22%; violence is down by 7%; and drug offences are down by 14%. I commend all the people who are involved in the Newquay Safe Partnership scheme.

Although most parents want to introduce their children to alcohol in a responsible and measured way, one contributory factor to the binge drinking and antisocial behaviour that we see in Newquay, and indeed in other seaside towns, and it is a factor that the police remain concerned about, is the way in which some parents send their children to Newquay with huge amounts of alcohol. I will give some examples of this parental behaviour supplied by Devon and Cornwall police, which put the issue into context and which may benefit the Chamber.

One Newquay guest house has reported that parents regularly turn up with their children and a car boot full of booze. When told by the management that that is unacceptable, parents seek to meet their children elsewhere in the town to pass the alcohol to them. In one case, 67 cans of Special Brew were seized from four children who were visiting Newquay for a weekend. Another guest house reported finding 350 items of alcohol in one room that had been let out to just six children who were visiting Newquay. A local caravan site seized more than 353 cans and bottles containing alcohol from 16-year-olds during a 10-day period, including 117 cans of Stella and 5 litres of vodka. On one day in July this year, police confiscated 443 cans and bottles containing alcohol from children arriving in Newquay on public transport. One 16-year-old girl arrived in the town for a four-day break with £300 in her wallet, and later that same day she was found incapacitated by alcohol and her parents were asked to come to Newquay to collect her. A youth mentoring scheme reports that 70% of young people have been given alcohol by their parents.

As I have said, the vast majority of parents want to introduce their children to alcohol in a responsible and supervised way, but it seems that some parents are not considering the impact of leaving their children unsupervised in an unfamiliar town with large amounts of alcohol. When police and other local authorities or local people, such as the managers of hotels or guest houses, try to reproach parents about their behaviour, they are often met with hostility. Police were told by the parents of one 16-year-old boy, who had 64 cans of Special Brew seized from him, that they were “spoiling his fun”.

In Newquay, as in other seaside towns, local public authorities effectively adopt young people when they are in the town.

[Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend, who is making a fantastically positive speech about what has been happening in Newquay to tackle these very difficult problems. In case that people think that under-age drinking is a particular problem for Newquay, I want to back up my hon. Friend by saying that it is a problem all over the country and certainly in other seaside towns around Cornwall. It is important that we see this as a national issue and not just a problem in Newquay. It is also important that we learn from the fantastic work in Newquay.

[Stephen Gilbert]

My hon. Friend is exactly right that this is not a problem that is unique to Newquay. It is a problem that Newquay perhaps now has expertise in tackling, but I hope that the lessons that we have learned, the successes of schemes such as the Newquay Safe Partnership and the way in which we are now moving forward to tackle the parental supply of alcohol can be instructive to all parts of the country.

[Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)]

Should we not address not only the issue of parents sending children away to places such as Newquay with alcohol but the supply of alcohol that is routinely provided in children’s own homes? Indeed, should we consider making it an offence for parents knowingly to supply other people’s children with alcohol at parties on their own premises, which we would otherwise call proxy buying?

[Stephen Gilbert]

My hon. Friend has opened a can of worms by raising the responsibilities that parents have to not only their own children but other people’s children in their homes. Parents often underestimate their influence over their children, whether it involves setting an example or supplying alcohol for parties. She has made an excellent point, and I hope that the Minister will respond to it when he winds up the debate.

We know from research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which published a paper on this issue in June, that if a young person finds alcohol easy to obtain their chances of drinking excessively increase fourfold. Equally, if a young person sees their parents drunk, it doubles the chance that they themselves will get drunk. In that report, parents emerge as one of the crucial influences on teenage drinking. Shockingly, that research, which was based on a survey of 5,700 children, found that one in five children claim to have been drunk for the first time by the age of 14 and that half of all 16-year-olds report having been drunk.

Last weekend, further research from the schools health education unit showed that children as young as 12 say that they drink the equivalent of 19 glasses of wine per week. In that survey, 83,000 school pupils were questioned, and 4% of 12 and 13-year-olds said that they consume 28 or more units of alcohol a week, which is more than the maximum amount suggested in the adult weekly guidelines for alcohol. Clearly, it might not be possible or appropriate to use legislation to solve this widespread cultural problem, but we must ensure that legislation passed by this House does not create an opportunity for the problem to get worse. I welcome the steps that the Government are taking to crack down on people who sell alcohol to children, including the doubling to £20,000 of the fine for under-age alcohol sales and the extension of the period of closure that can be given as an alternative to prosecution when premises are found to have been involved in supplying alcohol to children.

I want the Minister to touch on a number of issues that continue to cause me and the police concern. The first is section 149 of the Licensing Act 2003, which prohibits the proxy purchase of alcohol by adults for children. The section has been successfully used in Newquay in a campaign supported by Crimestoppers, with a number of individuals being prosecuted when there was evidence that alcohol has been bought by an adult and supplied to a child. There is a clear problem, however, with parent dealers, who when questioned by the police often say that they did not buy the alcohol for their children—they just happened to have it and handed to them. Any well-prepared brief could drive a coach and horses through the attempted prosecution of a parent under that legislation.

Another legal avenue at our disposal are child neglect provisions, but they would apply only to under-16s, leaving a hole where the slightly older, but still vulnerable, 17 and 18-year-olds are. Will the Minister, therefore, undertake to review section 149, and look at tightening up rules on parental supply, perhaps stipulating that parents must be on hand to supervise the drinking of any alcohol that they supply to their children?

A second legislative hole is in the Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997, which provides the police with the power to confiscate but to make an arrest only if the request to hand over the alcohol is not complied with. Because of the significant pressure on local police forces, it is often not possible for them to make an arrest even if such action is desirable, and their power in that regard must be strengthened.

I firmly believe that we must look again at alcohol pricing, and I have raised the issue in the House. Even with the changes recently announced by the Government, supermarkets’ ability to sell alcohol at prices that are so much cheaper than in pubs and clubs causes genuine concern to many people.

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for initiating this important debate. He has painted a powerful picture of the effect of alcohol misuse in his constituency. Does he agree that we must have a minimum price of at least 50p, as recommended by the British Medical Association, if we are to make a difference?

[Stephen Gilbert]

I am not expert enough to say where the price should be set, but I agree that the Government need to take a concerted look at minimum alcohol pricing, because what has been done to date does not go far enough. I firmly agree that minimum pricing is the only real way forward. The hon. Gentleman’s point is backed up by a 2008 report by the university of Sheffield, which showed that minimum pricing is the best way to reduce alcohol harm, and the report forms the basis of a handbook being produced by the World Health Organisation on its approach to dealing with alcohol-related harm.

The Minister will be aware, as early-day motion 2264 makes clear, that of the 4,000 price promotions under way in February, only one would have been affected by the current Government policy to prevent the sale of alcohol at a cost below duty plus VAT. Will the Minister undertake to meet me and representatives of Devon and Cornwall police to discuss minimum alcohol pricing and the further steps that the Government can take? Will he also look, with colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, at the ubiquity of alcohol in supermarkets? If a licensing regime and hours are felt appropriate for clubs and pubs, should they not also apply to supermarkets and other outlets? The Minister will be aware that the Association of Chief Police Officers is considering a national policing alcohol harm reduction strategy, which covers the role of parental control and supply. Will he engage with officers who face this problem across the country, and take concrete steps to help the police to keep children safe?

The problem of alcohol abuse requires a deep-seated cultural change. A single debate here today will not achieve that, but I hope that it will help to promote discussion about parents’ role in supplying children with alcohol for unsupervised consumption. As well as ensuring that the police have the necessary powers to combat under-age drinking, we need a greater emphasis on education. The charity Drinkaware has recently launched a “Your kids and alcohol” campaign, which emphasises the importance of parents talking to their children from an early age about drink, ideally in their pre-teens before the influence of peers increases. Drinkaware’s advice to parents is clear, “You have more influence than you think.” Most parents assume that they are the last people their children would turn to to talk about alcohol, but research shows that children between the ages of nine and 17 would go to their parents first. Parents need to talk to their children, and keep talking, before their friends do. Giving children the facts earlier ensures that they get accurate information with which to challenge what their friends tell them and make responsible choices.

We all enjoy a drink, but we must recognise the dangers that unsupervised drinking can present to children and the need for parents to help educate and protect them. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.

Alcohol (Minimum Pricing)

Stephen Gilbert Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

I am conscious of the time, so I will not delay hon. Members by going through some of the statistics on the type of harm that alcohol is causing in my constituency—they are firmly on the record. That is particularly the case in Newquay, where many people go to have a very good time—often too much of a good time. I should put an interest on record. Like many hon. Members, I enjoy a drink from time to time, and I also have a brewery in my constituency in St Austell.

For the Minister’s benefit, I want to touch on one of the potentially unintended effects of the duty plus VAT regime that the Government are introducing. When the Minister introduced the policy, he said that it was “an important first step.” I agree with that, but it is also a very tentative step. In fact, in certain circumstances, industry representatives have said to me that the policy could make the price of alcohol lower in some retail establishments. As has been mentioned by other hon. Friends, the proposal does not factor in any sense of the cost of production. Retailers and wholesalers, neither of which will be taking any margin, could end up paying the duty plus VAT and reducing the cost as part of a marketing exercise—brand awareness—and an attempt to drive footfall.

Just before Christmas, if someone had £20 and went into a store with a promotion on, they might have been able to get three 15 packs of beer or cider—about 45 cans. Under the Government’s proposals, supermarkets can legitimately charge £20 for 52 cans of lager or a staggering 107 cans of cider. That is a great offer for someone who likes that kind of thing. The proposals mean that, for £20, someone could buy enough cider to meet their recommended daily alcohol consumption for three months—107 cans of cider is equivalent to 246 units.

[Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)]

rose—

[Stephen Gilbert]

I will not give way. I know my hon. Friend wants to get in, so I will try to rattle through the points that I want to make.

Potentially, under a duty plus VAT arrangement, the following could be purchased for £20: not 45 cans of beer but 52; not 45 cans of cider but 107; not six bottles of wine but 10, and almost two bottles of spirits.

As has been mentioned, the policy does not factor in costs of production and is a very tentative step forward. There is a big discrepancy between the price of beer and the price of cider. We have to consider whether the Treasury is taxing those products equally. If we consider beer, at 4.2% alcohol by volume, the duty per unit is 17p; for cider, at 4.5% ABV, it is 7p per unit. Beer tax has increased by 50% over seven years and the gap between beer and cider tax widens every year. The Treasury is estimated to be losing £400 million a year. I shall now sit down, so that my hon. Friend can make her contribution.