COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 23 May 1968)

§ LORD WINTERBOTTOM

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 6. It might be to the convenience of the House if your Lordships would agree that we consider Amendments Nos. 6 and 8 together. These two Amendments are linked and can conveniently be taken together. Their purpose is to tidy up Clause 12 by keeping all the offences concerning Royalty together in one clause while making subsection (3) into a separate clause. The first Amendment, No. 6, would extend subsection (1) to cover false indications that goods or services are of a kind supplied to members of the Royal Family. The second Amendment would then separate off the two subsections relating to false indications of Royal patronage, approval and award from subsection (3), which would become a new clause dealing with false indications that goods or services are of a kind supplied to any person. We think this arrangement would be more logical and, because what has hitherto been Clause 12(3) would consequently be mentioned separately in the "Arrangement of Sections" index at the front, would make it easier for persons referring to the Bill in later years to see that it contains provisions dealing with false representations about the supply of goods and services to persons other than Royalty.

An incidental effect of the Amendments would be to narrow the offence in subsection (3) of Clause 20 of assisting or inducing the commission in another country of an act which, if committed here, would be an offence under Clause 12, so that it would not extend to false claims that goods are of a kind supplied to any private person. This change is 871 consistent with the purpose of Clause 20 which is only to deal with certain kinds of acts which are likely to be particularly harmful to British interests in export markets. My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 6.