Speeches by Johnson.

“Before I speak to the key Government amendments tabled on Report, I quickly remind the House why the Government have brought forward this Bill. It is a vital part of our safer streets mission, and contains a host of measures to tackle antisocial behaviour, retail and knife crime, and the epidemic of violence against wo…”

“I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.”

“My hon. Friend makes that point very well. These individuals are exploited by serious and organised criminal gangs, and we are going to clamp down on those gangs’ activity. New clause 53 re-enacts the offence of being on enclosed premises for an unlawful purpose. It will make it an offence for a person to trespass on a…”

“I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman about the importance of sharing information, good practice and policy development, and I hope that that will go from strength to strength under this Government. Let me now say something about abusive behaviour towards emergency workers. As we all know, they put themselves in har…”

“Sadly, that is not the first time I have heard about such appalling behaviour of attacking and injuring animals using catapults. I will certainly be raising that with my counterparts in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to see what more we can do. I am aware that this issue needs to be looked at, a…”

“I do not want to try Mr Speaker’s patience, but time has been allocated for that debate this afternoon. The hon. Gentleman is a very experienced Member of this House, and he will know that crime Bills often become Christmas tree Bills due to their very nature, as Members wish to table amendments on all sorts of areas o…”

“I will continue, because I need to cover other amendments that have been tabled. On amendment 11, assessing the signs and indications of abuse can be complex and subjective, particularly for the very large number of non-experts that this duty will apply to, many of whom are engaging with children infrequently or irregu…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point. I probably will not have time to go into detail, but the amendment is not required because what my hon. Friend describes is not what the Bill is intended to do. I am very happy to speak to her outside the Chamber about that, but I reassure her that that is not its…”

“I am grateful to Members for setting out the case for their amendments, and I will seek to respond to as many Members as possible in the remaining time available. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers), tabled amendments 167 to 183, which echo many of the amendments considered in Committe…”

“Absolutely. I think we will have 3,000 additional neighbourhood police officers by the end of March next year, as part of our commitment to putting in place 13,000 neighbourhood police officers by the end of this Parliament. It has been clear throughout the Bill’s passage that it commands broad support across the House…”

“The right hon. Lady and I have had this discussion before, and I have made it very clear that the national insurance increases have been funded through the money that is available to police forces this year. That is in stark contrast to the situation under the previous Government, who did not make a proper allocation f…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Ms Furniss. I start, of course, by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) for making such a passionate and eloquent speech on behalf of her constituents, and for what she said about her fight—indeed, her mission—t…”

“My own personal view is irrelevant, because I am here to present what the Government of the United Kingdom’s policy is around drugs.”

“I think that that was one of the recommendations that was made by the Home Affairs Select Committee in the previous Parliament, which I of course chaired; I had great pleasure in doing that. My role now is different. I am a Government Minister. I am here to speak on behalf of the Government and set out what the Governm…”

“While drugs policy and legislation is reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government have responsibility for healthcare, education and housing. These are issues that also play a part in how you tackle the drug problem in Scotland, just as they are around the United Kingdom. This is a response that the Scottish …”

“No, I do not accept that, with the greatest of respect. This is not the only thing that can be done to deal with drug misuse. The UK Government are very clear that there are a number of measures that can be used. You have already talked about clean needles. We know, for example, that Police Scotland has led the way in …”

“With the greatest of respect, this is not a UK Government policy. It is something that the Scottish Government have decided to do but it does not have legal basis within the Misuse of Drugs Act, as you know. You have obviously had lots of evidence about that and about the approach that the Lord Advocate has taken to pr…”

“As I understand it, it is a pilot. It has to be evaluated and there has to be evidence produced. I am not sure that that will be available within a year. As I understand the evidence that you have received, the interim evaluation will be available in two and a half years’ time. That is what I understand you have been t…”

“As I have said, we look at evidence and we have experts. We have the ACMD that offers advice. We look at evidence all the time. I really want to be clear with you: we do not support drug consumption facilities. It is not our policy and we will not be amending the Misuse of Drugs Act, just to be very clear with you.”

“Thank you very much for inviting me along today. We are very clear that we are not going to be amending the Misuse of Drugs Act. We look at evidence around drug misuse from around the world. We certainly consider that. It is absolutely appropriate to look at harm reduction policies and what is happening. In terms of th…”