Draft Local Authorities (Alcohol Disorder Zones) Regulations 2008

2.1 The Committee draws the special attention of both Houses to these draft Regulations on the ground that they are defectively drafted in one respect.

2.2 Section 15 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 ('the 2006 Act') confers power on the Secretary of State to provide in regulations for the imposition of charges to be paid to a local authority by certain licence holders in areas designated as alcohol disorder zones ('ADZs'). Under subsection (8)(b) and (c), provision may be made in the regulations for the determination of questions about liability for charges, the rate of charges and other matters, and for appeals against decisions determining such questions.

2.3 Regulation 17(1) of the draft Regulations requires a local authority to issue, to licence holders in a locality recently designated as an ADZ, a statement containing information about certain specified matters related to charges, including (paragraph (2)(j)) 'the means by which the licence holder can appeal the level of charge imposed'. Yet the draft Regulations make no provision for such an appeal.

2.4 In paragraph 3.1 of the Explanatory Memorandum laid with the draft Regulations it is stated that there is 'no bespoke appeals process set out in the regulations', and paragraph 3.2 includes an electronic reference to draft guidance where (it is said) the 'appeals process is set out in detail'. But, at the time the Committee first considered the draft Regulations, that guidance was in many respects inconsistent with them, and related to an earlier draft laid before Parliament in November 2007 and subsequently withdrawn. The Committee therefore asked the Home Office, in the light of section 15(8)(c) of the 2006 Act and regulation 17(2)(j), why there was no provision in the Regulations for appeals against decisions about charges.

2.5 In a memorandum printed at Appendix 2, the Department sets out at length an extract from a speech made by its Minister in Standing Committee during its consideration of the Violent Crime Reduction Bill, and explains that, notwithstanding what was said by the Minister on that occasion, it had subsequently been decided that appeals should not be provided for in the draft Regulations, because 'the default appeal provisions will apply'. These are, according to the memorandum, set out in the guidance referred to above (which has only recently been up-dated). But paragraph 8.7 of that guidance describes only the possibility of recourse to the Local Government Ombudsmen, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, local authorities' own complaints procedures and judicial review.

2.6 In the Committee's view, the word 'appeal' is not apt to describe complaints processes referred to in that paragraph (for instance, a complaint to a Local Government Ombudsman is not an 'appeal'). It therefore considers that regulation 17(2)(j) is defectively drafted in so far as it uses the word 'appeal' to refer to recourse to arrangements described in paragraph 8.7 of the guidance.