§ .—(1) Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under this Act and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity he, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
§ (2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) above shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.'. —[Mr. Hurd.]
751§ Brought up, and read the First time.
Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to discuss Government new clause 5 and Government amendments Nos. 1, 5, 18A, 23, 34, 92 to 99, 139, 142, 143, 145, 146, 156, 159, 167, 173, 181, 183, and 184.
§ Mr. HurdIn response to the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Small Heath (Mr. Howell), I entirely concede that the House is confronted with many Government new clauses and amendments. To a large extent, although not completely, this is a result of discussions in another place and in Committee, and I shall illustrate that point as I go through the Government's proposals.
The amendments and new clauses under discussion stem from a debate in the other place, where it was legitimately pointed out that there were gaps in the existing law, which did not cover the theft of cable and satellite services. The right hon. Gentleman will agree that I have done my best to keep him and other interested Members as fully informed as I could of the progress on this issue, but I accept that there are some indigestible morsels here.
§ Mr. Denis HowellNone of my criticisms was personally directed at the Minister, who in Committee was as helpful as he could be—indeed, he still is—but I am sure he appreciates my point of principle: that it is wrong to extend one Bill into three or four Bills in the manner adopted by the Government.
§ Mr. HurdI understand the right hon. Gentleman's point.
These new clauses and amendments flow directly from the new clauses which the House has just approved, which straddle the cable and DBS provisions in the Bill. As a result, they will appear in part III. That necessitates the rearrangement of other parts of the Bill. The new clause and amendments which we are now discussing introduce no further new policy. They are simply consequential on the theft arrangements which the House has just approved.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.