From: cc F8 Division Ext 2367 8 March 1990 HMCIC LORI. MEETING WITH HR HUNT AT 10.45 AM ON MONDAY 12 MARCH - - 1. Mr- is the Minister for _Local Government and Inner Cities and therefore responsible for the introduCtion of the community charge. He has asked to see Lord- on the public order implications of the introduction of the charge. CURRENT DISORDER 2. As you will have seen from the submission which I put forward yesterday there has been disorder at some (but by no means all) council meetings where the community charge level is being set. For the most part it cannot be said to have been serious. The worst instances have been in Bristol on Tuesday night (see Annex of submission of 7 March) and on Wednesday night in Southampton. Brief details of what happened at Southampton last night are attached as an annex; so too are brief reports on other places where we know there were demonstrations last night. 3. The assessment of the involvement of Militant Tendency remains as I described in my submission of 7 March. That is, no evidence of national co?ordination, and varying degrees of involvement at demonstrations ranging from none to considerable. 4. There has not been any suggestion (yet) that the police have done less than they should have done in policing the community charge level setting meetings. I understand from' the Department of Environment that the situation is made more difficult because some councils do not mind their meetings being disrupted if it means they can put off awkward decisions. The Department of the Environment is currently considering imposing on councils model standing orders so that meetings are conducted in a more orderly fashion if there are attempts at disruption. 5. None of the officials with whom I have spoken at the _wants to Department of Environment is aware of what raise. The police's duty in the case of demonstrations is to maintain the peace and prevent or deal with the commission of criminal offences. We cannot direct them how they perform these duties. I have not heard it suggested, and nor do I believe from what I know, that the law or their poWers are inadequate for dealing with the demonstratidns and disorder which has occurred in connection with setting the community charge. 6- As I explained in my note of 7 March budget setting meetings have to be completed by 11 March by which time councils will know what their community charges are, although by law they do not have to set them until 1 April. POSS IBLE FUTURE DI SORDER 7. may be worried about the longer term and what will happen if people refuse to pay their community charge when their bills start arriving later this month and in April. I understand that if people do not pay, a council may use civil procedures to obtain a liability order from the courts. The council may then obtain the due amount by a number of methods and if necessary, by sending in bailiffs. In the final analysis debtors can be imprisoned but this again is a civil procedure. It is hard to imagine defaulters and/or dissatisfied payers coming together spontaneously in sufficient numbers with intent to cause serious public disorder. More probable, I would suggest, is organised demonstrations where behaviour deteriorates and the police become subject to attack as they seek to control the demonstrators. It is not an unusual situation with the police finding themselves as the immediate face of Authority and thus regarded as a legitimate target. 8. As I have said in the previous paragraph the charge seems unlikely by itself to lead to spontaneous serious disorder. But it is not inconceivable that it could be a factor which raised community tension and therefore made this more likely. We are next week going to set in train the annual exercise of asking inner city forces for an assessment of the likelihood of disorder this summer. If chief officers see the imposition of the community charge as having significant effect on the prospects for disorder they will report this to Us. SCOTLAND 9. The experience in Scotland where the charge has been in place for a year has been different. At the time of setting the level of charge there was organised opposition by political parties. There were marches and demonstrations. There were not however the same determined efforts to disrupt council meetings that there have been in England. Since the charge bills went out (a year ago), the Scottish Nationalist Party has encouraged people to resist payment and make life difficult for collecting authorities but there has been no street violence. 10. I will attend the meeting. - Index Southampton Leeds Liverpool Walton?on?Thames Plymouth Newbury London Bolton Oldham Leicester Newcastlekupon?Tyne ANNEX