Indecent Displays (Control) Bill (Hansard, 1 May 1981)

§ Mr. S. C. Silkin (Dulwich)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Before we proceed to amendment No. 1, perhaps I may raise a point about the grouping of amendments, with particular reference to the penultimate grouping of Government amendments Nos. 6 and 8. I apologise for having noticed this only late last night and having therefore been unable to give you advance warning.
Government amendment No. 6 is really no more than a formality to provide that the provisions of clause 4 apply to England and Wales. Government amendment No. 8, however, is more substantial. It seeks to insert into the Bill corresponding penalties for Scotland. The present grouping would mean that the debate on penalties for Scotland would take place with the formal amendment contained in Government amendment No.6. As a matter of order in the Bill, the main debate on penalties falls between the two, consisting of the last group of amendments which contains a number of proposals for amending the penalties.
It would be unsaisfactory to have what would probably be a half-cock debate on the Scottish part, which comes later, grouped with Government amendment No. 6, which is a formality, prior to the main debate on the last group of amendments. There are two ways in which this could be remedied. One is to separate amendments No. 6 and 8. The other, which I support—and I am the first signatory to amendment No. 12, which is the first of the many amendments in the later group—would be to group all o f the amendments relating to penalty provisions together, so that we may deal with all of them in one debate. I have spoken to the hon. Member for Hove (Mr. Sainsbury) Subject to anything that he may wish to say, I understand that he would support that proposal.

§ Mr. Tim Sainsbury (Hove)
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. As the right hon. and learned Member for Dulwich (Mr. Silkin) has said, we briefly discussed this matter and I believe that he has a good and valid point Acceptance of the suggestion to group Government amendments Nos. 6 and 8 with amendments Nos. 12, 13, 7, 17 and 19 would facilitate our debate.

§ Mr. Speaker
I am always open to reasonable argument. If that is the will of the House, I shall readjust the selection of amendments so that Governrnent amendment No. 6 and amendment No. 12—with all those bracketed with amendment No. 12—and Government amendment No. 8 may be taken together in order to allow a broad debate on the subject of penalties.