Meeting of the Parliament 25 June 2015
The member is correct to say that gun crime is at an almost record low. However, within the category of gun crime, almost half of all the offences involve air weapons. He may also have noticed from the most recently published statistics that, in the area where there was an increase in gun crime, the increase was due to the use of air weapons. Having a licensing regime will assist us to be more effective in ensuring that people who are not suitable to have such weapons do not have access to them.
The bill does not ban air weapons in Scotland, but those who should not have access to firearms—including those who deliberately and maliciously target property, animals or other people—will no longer be allowed to have air weapons. That will better protect the public from suffering harm at the hands of those who misuse their guns.
When publishing the committee’s stage 1 report, the committee’s convener, Kevin Stewart, said:
“There is no doubt air weapons are dangerous … That is why we welcome plans to introduce a licensing regime … It is a timely and important piece of work.”
I welcome and agree with his remarks and I am sure that the majority of members also agree with them and support the provisions.
Alcohol licensing is of constant interest to the Parliament. That part of the bill is largely focused on quite technical issues. We know that outdoor drinking dens attract vulnerable young people and place them at immediate and long-term risk. That is why the bill creates offences in relation to the supply of alcohol by adults to children and young people in a public place. That will give the police the powers that they require to address the problem of drinking dens.
A fit-and-proper-person test is being introduced for premises licences and personal licences, and licensing boards will also be able to consider spent offences. Those changes were widely called for to ensure that only those who are suitable can hold a licence.
We are clarifying that a licensing board, when considering overprovision, may determine that the whole of its area is a single locality. We have listened to calls for licensing boards to provide greater clarity about how they carry out their business. Therefore, as well as imposing a duty on boards to report annually on their income and expenditure, the bill requires boards to publish an annual report on the exercise of their functions.
Various members expressed concerns about the five-year ban on someone reapplying for a personal licence after they have had their licence revoked for failure to submit a refresher training certificate. We are removing that ban. That will come into effect on the day following royal assent.
The bill improves the effectiveness of civic licensing regimes with a variety of reforms across a wide area. It will deliver an improved regime for the licensing of metal dealers that will raise standards in the industry and make it more difficult for metal thieves to convert the proceeds of crime into cash. The bill ensures that all dealers are licensed, bans the use of cash as payment for scrap, tightens record-keeping arrangements and requires proper identification of customers. It also increases the scope of licensing to capture some important peripheral activities, such as door-to-door collectors. It increases penalties for licensing offences and creates a power that will enable the creation of a register of metal dealers.
I take the opportunity to record my thanks to those who have helped in developing the proposals—particularly the British Metals Recycling Association, which has represented the interests of the many legitimate and reputable scrap metal dealers, and the British Transport Police, which has led the fight against metal theft in recent years.
The bill allows communities a greater say over whether sexual entertainment, such as lap dancing, takes place in their areas by allowing local authorities the power to provide for a licensing regime for such activity and thereby to control the number of licences that are granted for sexual entertainment venues. Central to that is the belief that the voice of communities should be heard and that local authorities should have a clear influence over whether an activity such as sexual entertainment should take place in their areas. Local authorities are best placed to reflect the views of the communities that they serve and to determine whether sexual entertainment establishments should be authorised and under what conditions.
I welcome the amendments to the bill that reinforce the role that imposing proper control over sexual entertainment venues can play in tackling violence against women. I applaud the role that many individuals and organisations have played in getting us to this point, but I particularly acknowledge Sandra White, who has worked tirelessly for many years to highlight the issues and to push for the introduction of such a licensing regime.
The bill also makes a small number of changes in relation to taxi and private hire car licensing regimes. Local authorities are responsible for hire car licensing regimes. They have discretion in applying a local regime that best meets their area’s requirements, and that can take account of the views of customers and the trade. In general, the local process works well.
Specific provisions in the bill include the power to refuse, on the ground of overprovision, to grant private hire car licences; the extension of driver testing to allow testing of private hire car drivers; and the removal of the contract exemptions from the licensing and regulation of taxis and private hire cars, which will bring hire cars that are used on contracts into the licensing regime. The bill also simplifies and improves licensing arrangements by, for example, providing for the licensing of theatres within the public entertainment licensing regime.
I have set out the Government’s thinking on some of the key areas of a wide-ranging bill.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Bill be passed.