§ Lady TweedsmuirI beg to move, in page 37, line 4, to leave out "sections 53 and 69" and to insert "section 53".
If I might, Mr. Speaker, deal at the same time with the next Amendment, these two Amendments are designed purely to tidy up the drafting of the Bill consequential on a change in the English law which is being effected by the Children and Young Persons Bill.
1415 The first Amendment relates to Section 69 of the English Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, to which reference is made in Section 11 of the Family Allowances Act, 1945. This is being repealed and replaced by a Clause in the Children and Young Persons Bill. Therefore, the reference to Section 69 of the 1933 Act here is unnecessary, and the Amendment deletes it.
The second Amendment relates to Section 73 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937, the Scottish counterpart to Section 69. An amendment to the Family Allowances Act, 1945, in Schedule 3 of the Children and Young Persons Bill includes references in Section 11 of that Act both to the English new Clause and to the Scottish Section 73. The reference to Section 73 here therefore becomes unnecessary, and the second Amendment deletes it.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Further Amendment made: In page 37, line 6, leave out "sections 57 and 73 "and insert" section 57".—[Lady Tweedsmuir.]
§ Mr. SpeakerWe now come to the need for a consequential Amendment. I understand that a manuscript Amendment is to be moved.
§ 11.45 p.m.
§ Lady TweedsmuirThank you for consent, Mr. Speaker. This manuscript Amendment is necessary and consequential upon the Amendment moved by the hon. Member for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan) to Clause 45, page 23, line 27.
I beg to move, in page 39, line 24, to leave out "50" and to insert "25".
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Further Amendments made: In page 39, line 30, leave out "two hundred and fifty" and insert "one hundred and fifty".
§
In page 41, line 37, at end insert:
(3B) For the purposes of subsection (3) of this section, a previous conviction shall be disregarded after the expiration of a period of ten years from the date of that conviction, being a period exclusive of any period during which the offender was in custody under sentence in respect of the conviction.—[Lady Tweedsmuir.]
§ Lady TweedsmuirI beg to move, in page 42, line 5, to leave out "12, 13 and 15" and to insert "11, 12 and 14".
The purpose of the Amendment is to correct an error made in the editing of the Report stage print of the Bill following its amendment in Committee, and, in particular, the disappearance of the original Clause 9. The references should be to the three Clauses dealing with the extension of compulsory after care to new classes of offenders—Clause 11, 12, and 14.
§ Mr. RossWe are very grateful to the hon. Lady for correcting this error. She has been meticulous to the last. If we had had the Lord Advocate or the Solicitor-General here we should have taken very much longer and have had far more errors to correct.
But I was hoping, on the last lap of this very important Bill, that we might have seen the Secretary of State, whose name has appeared at the head of all the Government Amendments and whose voice we have not heard at all on this Measure since his speech on Second Reading. So we have only her word that this is an essential Amendment.
Having heard the hon. Lady in Committee dealing with these matters so ably and well, and noting the absence of the Secretary of State and the two other Under-Secretaries, who were not even here to relieve her to give her a cup of tea during the whole day, and having heard only one speech from a Tory back bencher—it was dragged out of him—I think we are entitled to say "thanks" to her and give her her last Amendment.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Bill read the Third time and passed, with Amendments.