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Lords Amendment: No. 22, in page 4, line 18, leave out from "search" to "of" in line 19 and insert:
that person if, with reasonable cause, he suspects him".
§ Mr. HardyI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
This amendment would remove a possible ambiguity in the clause. As drafted, it is not clear whether "any person" referred to in lines 18 and 19 is necessarily the same person as "any person" in line 16. The amendment makes it clear that a constable's powers of search are contingent upon his having reasonable cause to suspect a person not only of committing or of having committed an offence but also of having evidence on his person of the commission of an offence.
Throughout our consideration of the Bill we have tried to make it clear that we in no way seek to trespass against the individual's liberties and freedom. We feel that we have struck a happy balance between the freedom and rights of the individual and the need to conserve our heritage.
The ambiguity which would exist without the amendment might bear heavily upon the liberty of the individual. I feel therefore that this amendment can be accepted. It will not greatly impede the purposes of the Bill. It will ensure that 946 the law will be upheld and that respect for the law will not be diminished.
§ Question put and agreed to.
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Lords Amendment: No. 23, in page 4, line 29, leave out "that person's possession" and insert:
the possession of that person".
§ Mr. HardyI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
This alteration represents an improvement, I suggest. When I was a schoolmaster most of the young people whom I taught had very little understanding of the use of the apostrophe. Since I left teaching, it may be that there has been a marked improvement. But it seems to me that this amendment will make the use of an apostrophe unnecessary, with the result that people reading the Bill will not be perturbed or disadvantaged by the fact that an apostrophe appears in it.
The amendment is not designed to save the face of the nation, which seems to have lost the art of the use of the apostrophe. It is included to improve the drafting and to bring the phrase into line with the same phrase used in Clause 11, on line 11 of page 5.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Lords Amendment: No. 24, in page 4, line 35, after "and" insert "which".
§ Mr. HardyI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
This amendment will bring the drafting of the Bill into line with the language used earlier in the clause. It is not an earth-shattering amendment, because we are merely inserting "which" after "and". I believe the House will agree that this greatly improves the Bill.
§ Question put and agreed to.