§ 57 Clause 38, page 28, line 37, leave out "an offence triable either way" and insert "a prescribed offence or an offence of any prescribed class"
§ 58 Page 29, line 13, leave out "and"
§ 59 Page 29, line 13, line 17, at end insert and (c) may make different provision with 475 respect to different offences or offences of different classes."
§ 60 Page 29, line 13, line 18, leave out from beginning to second "to" in line 20 and insert "It shall not be open to a person convicted of an offence".
§ 5.6 p.m.
§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICHMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 57 to 60 en bloc. This group of Amendments relates to a matter which has attracted debate at every stage in your Lordships' House, though on this occasion I do not think we need spend long on it. The Amendments to Clause 38, which contains the power to make rules providing for advance disclosure of the prosecution case—the noble Lord, Lord Wigoder, and I devoted a great deal of attention to this, as did many others—are Amendments which I think the noble Lord will have had the opportunity to study; they make rather more sense of the provision and make the drafting a great deal more satisfactory.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendments.—(Lord Harris of Greenwich.)
§ Lord WIGODERMy Lords, I very much welcome this as a substantial step forward and I am grateful to the Government for their co-operative attitude in the matter. If it is within our rules of order, perhaps I might raise a small matter. Even after the Amendment was carried in Standing Committee in the other place, when the Bill was reprinted it still contained in the side note and in the table of contents at the beginning the words:
Power to make rules for offences triable either way".That is now a wholly misleading description and I hope that in due course that will be rectified before the Bill is finally printed.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.