SOLICITING A WOMAN IN A MANNER LIKELY TO CAUSE HER FEAR (Hansard, 5 July 1985)

§ Miss Fookes

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

The purpose of the amendment is simplicity itself. It seeks to delete clause 3, the essential substance of which reads: A man commits an offence if he solicits a woman for sexual purposes in a manner likely to cause her fear. Their Lordships have been good enough to honour an undertaking given by me, in consultation with the Minister, to this House before their Lordships considered the Bill. It was felt that the clause could give rise to serious concerns and that perhaps it went too wide in what is essentially, I still think, a useful proceeding to ensure that a woman has redress when she is put in fear by approaches from a man for sexual purposes of whatever kind. We recognised that that was a worry and it was understood that we would not press it. This amendment achieves that, and I am grateful to their Lordships for making it.

There have been numerous excitements with the Bill, both here and in the other place. It may date me to refer to a splendid little wireless programme in the days of my childhood entitled "Dick Barton, Special Agent." From 6.45 pm to 7 pm this hero had the most exciting adventures. Sure enough, at half a minute to 7 o'clock he would be within an inch of losing his life. That happened every night. I felt like that myself when I had several narrow shaves with the Bill. Indeed, there were several this week.

When I say that I am grateful for the assistance that I have received, I am not reciting those words without 676 feeling. I am intensely grateful for the assistance that I have received from my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State and others who have been helpful to me from the very beginning of the Bill's passage. Those others will know who they are. I am grateful also to those who were willing to sponsor the Bill. It is quite an undertaking for a private Member to carry forward such a measure, bearing in mind that it seeks to create more than one new criminal offence.

I am grateful, of course, to those who served as members of the Committee. I thank especially Lady Vickers, who had such a distinguished career in this place. Lady Vickers' part in the Bill's passage through both Houses involved her in a great deal of work and some anxiety. I am grateful to those of their Lordships who gave a great deal of their attention — many of them have great experience of criminal matters and matters of life generally — to the Bill.

I am happy that the Bill retains the essential features which it was my intention to embody in law from the beginning. I hope that the Bill will be satisfactory to the hard-pressed residents of red light areas who have suffered for many years from the increasing menace of kerb crawling.

During the Bill's passage through Parliament I have been impressed by the number of letters that I have received and by the meetings that I have had with residents' associations, especially those from Wandsworth. I learned a great deal in the course of the proceedings and it is with the greatest pleasure that I commend the amendment to the House.

§ Mr. Marlow

I hasten to say to my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Drake (Miss Fookes) that I am not rising a la Dick Barton because I think that the amendment requires another 68 minutes of debate. I rise purely to say, as one whose activities might have implied some disagreement with some of her proposals earlier in the proceedings, how grateful the whole House is to her and how grateful the country will be that she has tackled this problem in the way that she has, and that she has brought forward a measure which I think the House now believes will deal with this problem, this blight, which affects many of our inner-city areas.

Although my hon. Friend might have been concerned about some of the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire, West (Mr. Parris) and I were making, we were concerned purely to see that there was no danger, in a new criminal law, that innocent people could be brought before the courts and their reputations and lives blighted accordingly. I feel that we have now reached a stage when my hon. Friend's requirements have been met and the innocent are no longer in danger. I would like finally to say that I congratulate my hon. Friend on her courage and persistence and on getting it right.