Member

In a rather minor way, as long ago as 1982, I moved a Private Member’s Bill in another place called the Victims of Violent Crimes Bill. It was about using the seized assets of people who were plying drugs on the streets of Liverpool. My noble friend Lord Hogan-Howe, who was a police officer and assistant chief constable on Merseyside during that period, will recall how often those gangs were able to play on the needs, the grief and the opportunities of selling drugs on the streets, and then to walk away with the proceeds. As a result, I will not say just of that Bill but of the climate that built up, the Government decided that they would use assets to put back into the community, as a demonstration that crime did not always pay. What the noble Lord, Lord Banner, is trying to do fits very much in that scheme of things.