§ Read 3a according to Order), with the Amendments.
§ Clause 4:
§ Offences and legal proceedings.
§ 4.—(1) If any person—
- (a) not being registered under this Act exhibits or trains any performing animal; or
- (b) being registered under this Act exhibits or trains any performing animal with respect to which or in a manner with respect to which he is not registered; or
- (c) being a person against whom an order by a court of summary jurisdiction has been made on complaint under this Act, contravenes or fails to comply with the order in any part of Great Britain, whether within or without the area of jurisdiction of that court; or
- (d) obstructs or wilfully delays any constable or officer of a local authority in the execution of his powers under this Act as to entry or inspection; or
- (e) conceals any animal with a view to avoiding such inspection; or
- (f) being a person registered under this Act, on being duly required in pursuance of this Act to produce his certificate under this Act fails without reasonable excuse so to do; or
- (g) applies to be registered under this Act when prohibited from being so registered;
§ LORD MERRIVALE had on the Paper an Amendment to move, after "conviction," near the end of subsection (1), to insert "upon a complaint made by a constable or an officer of a local authority." The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, I have given notice of an Amendment to the Bill to meet a difficulty which it seems to me might arise in the operation of the Bill as a practical matter, having regard to its novelty and the large number of possible new offences it, creates. I ventured to suggest to your Lordships on the Second Reading that it was desirable there should be some restriction upon the right to prosecute; that otherwise it might be at the caprice of any private person to start a vexatious prosecution. This Amendment will put a limit upon the power to prosecute by providing that the complaint upon which magistrates may act shall he made by a constable or the officer of a local authority. That is within the principle of a previous provision of the Bill, and it directs that certain action may be taken upon such a complaint as I have indicated.
§ Noble Lords know perfectly well that this is probably the only country in the world where, under a Police Act, any private person may vex his neighbour with proceedings. It is a law which is not often abused, but it is sometimes abused. I venture, therefore, to move that the proceedings provided for in Clause 4, subsection (1), which are to result in conviction and the penalty stated in the Act, shall be proceedings upon a complaint made by a constable or officer of the local authority. There is a slip in the Amendment as printed. As it appears on the Paper the words in restriction are to be inserted after "conviction" near the end of subsection (1). The point is, that it relates to cases where persons are convicted of offences, and I propose that the subsection shall read "where a person is 530 convicted upon a complaint made by a constable or an officer of a local authority." I am not without hope that my noble and learned friend Lord Danesfort may see his way to accept this very modest Amendment and I beg to move.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORIt is line 8 in my copy of the Bill. Will my noble friend move it as an Amendment to the first line of subsection (2)?
§ LORD MERRIVALEI move it as an Amendment after the words "summary conviction" in line 6, and the passage will then read—
he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable on summary conviction upon a complaint made by a constable or an officer of a local authority,and so on.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORThat is the Amendment as it appears on the Paper.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 4, line 6, after ("conviction") insert ("upon a complaint made by a constable or an officer of a local authority").—(LORD Merrivale.)
§ LORD DANESFORTMy Lords, I appreciate the force of what my noble and learned friend has said, and I beg to accept the Amendment.
§ LORD DESBOROUGHMy Lords, I have been asked to express the opinion of the Home Office upon this matter. The Home Office are fully aware of the object of my noble friend Lord Merrivale in moving this Amendment—to stop trivial prosecutions. While the Home Office have the fullest confidence in the ability of the court to deal with trivial offences, they agree with my noble and learned friend that the words he proposes to insert carry the spirit of the Bill a little further and will certainly prevent such prosecutions being taken. Therefore, the Home Office are willing to accept the Amendment, which, I hope, will prove satisfactory to the most rev. Primate.
EARL RUSSELLMy Lords, I should like to ask my noble friend Lord Desborough, whether the Home Office have considered that this Amendment would apparently preclude a prosecution by an officer of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I should 531 have thought that he was a very fitting person to be allowed to prosecute in these cases. Apparently, unless he can persuade some constable to prosecute for him, or the local authority to move, there can be no prosecution. Surely, it is not desired to exclude an officer of that society from power to prosecute. It is not likely that the society's prosecutions would be trivial.
§ LORD DESBOROUGHMy Lords, I think that would be so—that the society of which my noble friend speaks would have to proceed through the local authority or a police constable.
§ LORD DANESFORTMay I, by leave of the House, inform the noble Earl opposite why the Amendment was accepted in its present form? It was because in a previous clause a prosecution had to be instituted by a constable or an officer of a local authority, and we thought it better in Clause 4 to conform to the provision in the previous clause. I say that without desiring to suggest in the remotest degree that the officers of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are not fully competent to prosecute in proper cases.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Bill passed, and returned to the Commons.