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Lords Amendment: No. 8, in page 10, line 12, at the end insert—
or
(c) if that court had not the power to make such an order but would have had the power with subsection (1) of this section in force as it is at the time when the offender is dealt with under section 40(1)".
§ Mr. CarlisleI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
It is what I might call, if it is possible so to call an Amendment, a continuing transitional Amendment. It deals with the powers of the courts to add a supervision order to a suspended sentence order. It was made clear in Committee in this House that the court would have power to add a supervision order to a suspended sentence order if a person appeared before the court in breach of that suspended sentence order.
I gave an undertaking at that time to look again at the Bill to see what the position would be of a person who was under a suspended sentence order when the Bill was enacted, namely, before there was power to add a supervision order, who then came back before the court in breach of that order. The effect of the Amendment is to provide that where a person comes back before the court in breach of such an order and where the court would deal with it by merely continuing the period of the suspended sentence, the court can add a supervision order.
It is continuing transitional to this effect. The House will remember that there is a power in the Clause to lower the period of any sentence in which a supervision order can be added. At the moment it can be only on a suspended sentence of over six months. But if at any stage that power were used, this transitional provision would come back into effect again in the case of a breach of a suspended sentence which, though originally incapable, because of its length, of having a supervision order attached to it, was nevertheless capable of supporting an order, by virtue of the power conferred by this Amendment at the time of its breach.
§ Mr. S. C. Silkin (Dulwich)I wish only to supplement the remarks of the Minister of State by saying that we raised the point in Committee. The Minister was good enough to agree to look at it again and we are glad to see that he has come round to our view about how the power should work, and we are satisfied with the Amendment which he has put forward.
§ Question put and agreed to.