New Clause No. 18.—(INTERPRETATION OF PART III.) (Hansard, 12 July 1967)

§ Mr. Jay
I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
I hope that this does not put the hon. and learned Member for Northwich (Sir J. Foster) into the philosophical difficulty which was troubling him earlier. The purpose of the Clause is one of definition. In Part II of the Bill, Clause 105 is concerned with the production of books or papers. Clause 106 is concerned with the possession of books or papers. In Section 455(1) of the 1948 Act the expressions "book and paper" and "book or paper" include accounts, deeds, writings and documents. This Clause provides that references to books or papers in Part III shall be construed as if they were contained in the Companies Act, 1948. I hope that the hon. and learned Gentleman will agree that this comes under the category of what he 867 described as cattle being included in the class of asses rather than treating the one as if they were the other.

§ Mr. Graham Page
I am not sure that the President of the Board of Trade went far enough in his explanation. If I understand it, the books and papers now referred to in, say, Clause 105 are to come within the meaning of "books and papers" in the 1948 Act, and that definition includes documents.
Section 438 of the 1948 Act refers to falsification of documents. I presume that the real value of the new Clause is that if any of these documents produced under the powers of Clause 105 of the Bill were false or falsified it would be possible to prosecute under Section 438 of the 1948 Act. As I read it, that is the purpose of the new Clause.

§ Sir J. Foster
Does that include all the new methods of communication like dictaphone reels?

§ Mr. Jay
The hon. and learned Gentleman would know that better than I. That would be for the courts to determine. We determine here the words in the Act and it is for the courts to determine what they mean.