HC Deb 02 February 1959 vol 599 c36

The Secretary of the Committee will be Mr. G. V. Hart, of the Home Office, and Mr. P. N. S. Farrell, of the Home Office, will be Assistant Secretary.

I hope that the Committee will normally present its reports in the form of a draft Bill or of draft clauses, and the services of Parliamentary Counsel will be placed at its disposal to assist in the preparation of drafts.

The first major problem which I shall refer to the Committee will be the law of larceny and related offences, but since this is a large subject, on which a good deal of preparatory work will have to be done, I am asking the Committee, in the meantime, to consider how best to fill the gap in the law disclosed by the cases of Fairclough v. Whipp and D. of P.P. v. Rogers, in which it was held that a man who persuades a child to handle him indecently does not commit indecent assault.