§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. John Morris)I beg to move Amendment No. 5, in page 16, line 6, at the end to insert:
(6A) The foregoing provisions of this section shall have effect subject to the provisions (applying with the necessary modifications) of any enactment relating to the imposition of fines by magistrates' courts other than one conferring a discretion as to their amount; and any sum payable by virtue of an order under this section shall be treated as a fine, and the order as a conviction, for the purpose of Part III of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1952 (including any enactment having effect as if contained in that Part) and of any other enactment relating to the recovery or application of sums ordered to he paid by magistrates' courts.
§ Mr. SpeakerIt has been suggested to me that it would be convenient if, with this Amendment, we discussed at the same time Amendments Nos. 6, 68, 69 and 70, if the House has no objection.
§ Mr. MorrisThe main purpose of Clause 12 is to provide that when convicting an offender of unlicensed use or keeping of an unlicensed vehicle on a public road the court shall, as well as imposing a fine for the offence, order payment of any back duty due, calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Clause. The Amendments—I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for saying that we may take them together—seek to change this in the following manner.
The words "for all purposes" in subsection (9) have been found to be too wide. They would mean that courts would have power to mitigate the sums payable, in the same way as they have power to mitigate fines for offences under the 1962 Act. This is not the intention. There is no reason why an offender who is liable to repay back duty under the provisions of the Clause should have any opportunity to escape payment of the 338 full sum due, calculated as provided for in the Clause.
We therefore seek by Amendment No. 6 to replace subsection (9) of the Clause, and we do this by Amendment No. 5, which provides that the courts' discretion as to the amount of fines which they impose shall not extend to an ability to vary the amount of back duty which the convicted offender must be ordered to pay under subsection (1) of the Clause, and it preserves the other main provisions relating to fines.
Amendments Nos. 68 to 69 are drafting, paving the way for Amendment No. 70, which adapts this change for Scotland.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Further Amendments made: No. 6, in page 16, leave out lines 17 to 19.
§ No. 68, in line 21, leave out 'subsection (5)' and insert 'subsections (5) and (6A)'.
§ No. 69, in line 22, leave out 'subsection' and insert 'subsections respectively'.
§
No. 70, in line 31, at end insert:
(6A) The foregoing provisions of this section shall have effect subject to the provisions (applying with the necessary modifications) of any enactment relating to the imposition of fines by courts of summary jurisdiction, other than one conferring a discretion as to their amount; and any sum payable by virtue of an order under this section shall be treated as a fine, and the order as a conviction, for the purposes of any enactment relating to the recovery or application of sums ordered to be paid by courts of summary jurisdiction.—[Mr. John Morris.]