HC Deb 24 July 1958 vol 592 cc650-1
11. Mr. Roy Jenkins

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has now completed his consideration of the Report of the Select Committee on Obscene Publications; and when he hopes to introduce legislation on the subject.

Mr. R. A. Butler

I am still considering this Report and I cannot yet add to the Answer which I gave on 18th June to a Question by my noble Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Viscount Lambton).

Mr. Jenkins

Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that this would be a suitable subject for Government legislation in the coming Session? Is he aware that three efforts have been made by private Members; that we now have had this wide-based Select Committee which, with the assistance of two successive Under-Secretaries of State in the Department, approved the Report as a whole, and that we hope that he will bring forward Government proposals in the autumn?

Mr. Butler

I did say when I answered my noble Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed that we were obliged to the Committee for this valuable Report. It would be a euphemism to say that the question of legislation would be non-controversial, bin that does not mean that we shall not have something to say about it before too long.