§ Mr. MulleyI beg to move Amendment No. 101, in page 73, line 14, at end insert:
(3) In sections 45(i) and 46(2)(a) of the Harbours Act, 1964 (which provide respectively for penalties on summary conviction for furnishing false information and disclosing restricted information) the words ' to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or' shall be omitted and for the words ' f100 or to both ' there shall be substituted the words ' £400 '; but this subsection shall not apply in relation to offences committed before the coming into operation of this section.
§ Mr. SpeakerI suggest that we might, at the same time, discuss the following further Amendments, Nos. 107, 108, 109 and 110.
§ Mr. MulleyThe purpose of the Amendment is to meet points raised in 1359 Committee, principally by the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. Waddington), but also by other hon. Members. All the Committee recognised that persons who gave deliberately false information, and so on, should, if found guilty on indictment, be liable to substantial terms of imprisonment, and that in the magistrates' court, a term of three months was not satisfactory.
It seemed to me that, while it is no part of my function in Committee to seek to amend our general criminal procedure Acts, there was a lot of force in the argument that in those circumstances, before the magistrates, a financial penalty would be more appropriate, and obviously, for serious cases of fraud and false pretence, it would be appropriate that they should go on indictment, where, clearly, more serious penalties would be incurred.
It seemed to me that this would meet the consensus of the Committee and would also be in line with a lot of thinking on the general level of judicial penalties. I ask the House to accept the Amendments.
Mr. Edward M. TaylorI shall be brief because we have little time and a lot of Amendments still to cover. I certainly believe that so far as Amendments Nos. 107 to 110 are concerned that we would welcome these as a concession to the major and important point which my hon. Friend the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. Waddington) made. However, I wish the Minister would say a little more about Amendment No. 101, because it appears to me that that Amendment alters Sections 45 and 46 of the 1964 Harbours Act and these are the offences which arise out of Section 41 of the Harbours Act, 1964.
§ Mr. MulleyTo reply to that quite simply, the Section which we are amending in Amendments Nos. 107 to 110 was copied from the Harbours Act. Having decided to make the change we thought it logical to make the same Amendment to the Harbours Act as well.
Mr. TaylorThe point is that in Clause 41 the offences specified are offences against the National Ports Coun- 1360 cil. So far as I can see, in all the consequential Amendments we have made we have not removed this obligation from the council and under the Bill the council is being wound up. In those circumstances it is perhaps a mistake to take the trouble to amend the penalties in relation to an offence which takes place against the council.
This is a matter of considerable significance and I hope that the Minister will have an opportunity of replying to this. It is an important point because it relates to the question of persons being convicted on serious charges. We have no objection to the other Amendments, but it seems absolutely crucial that we have a full reply from the Minister on this Amendment, which
§ It being a quarter past Nine o'clock, Mr. SPEAKER proceeded, pursuant to the Order yesterday, to put forthwith the Question already proposed from the Chair.
§ Question, That the Amendment be made, put and agreed to.
§ Mr. SPEAKER then proceeded, pursuant to the Order yesterday, to put forthwith the Questions on the Amendments, moved by a member of the Government, of which notice had been given.