TIIE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL FERRERS)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time.
§ Moved, that the Bill be now read 3a.—(Earl Ferrers.)
§ On Question, Bill read 3a.
§
EARL FERRERS moved:
After Clause 5 insert the following new clause:
§ Proceedings for offences connected with importation
§ " . Without prejudice to section 80 of the principal Act (summary proceedings) an offence against that Act which is declared to be such by an order made under section 24 and expressed to be made for the purpose of preventing the introduction of rabies into Great Britain may be prosecuted on indictment; and a person convicted on indictment shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or to a fine or to both."
1374§ The noble Earl said: My Lords, this Amendment has been put down because there was a good deal of discussion at the earlier stages of the Bill on the problems which are posed by the smuggling of animals which were subject to rabies control. It was generally accepted that people who deliberately attempt to bypass our quarantine controls offer the greatest risk that we have for the importation of rabies. We all share the view expressed in Corn-mince by the noble Lords, Lord Shepherd and Lord Beswick, that the penalties imposed by magistrates when such offenders were detected and prosecuted had generally been very low relative to the maximum possible fine of £400 and to the cost of quarantining an animal.
§ My noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor explained that the only way of imposing higher penalties for particular types of offence that would be compatible with our general policy on penalties, was to make them optionally indictable. We undertook to consider whether this should be done and we concluded that it should be done. I hope therefore that the Amendment meets the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd. The affect of the Amendment, when orders have been made declaring the particular offences optional and indictable, will be to give prosecuting authorities a choice according to how serious they consider the offence to be. They will still be able to apply for summary trial before magistrates, but if they consider art offence to be particularly serious they will have the option of prosecuting on indictment. The defendant will then face trial by jury, and if he is convicted he may face a prison sentence of up to one year or an unlimited fine, or both, as compared with the maximum present penalty of £400.
§ There is one technical point: the terms of the Amendment will enable Ministers to distinguish between the more serious breaches of orders made under Section 24 of the Diseases of Animals Act, such as the deliberate smuggling of animals, and less serious offences where, for example, people land their animals without having obtained the necessary licence in advance but who nevertheless openly declare them to the Customs and Excise authorities. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, and the noble Lord, Lord Beswick, for the views which they expressed so strongly. I hope that this Amendment will help to meet them. I 1375 am certain that it will be an improvement to the Bill. I beg to move.
§ LORD HOYMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers, for moving this Amendment. We had very considerable feeling about this matter because this is a dangerous disease. We felt that we ought to deal with it in this way. I should like to record our thanks to the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor for his help in this direction. On two occasions when I was at the Ministry we had to deal with cases of this kind. We felt ourselves handicapped because of the limitation regarding the prosecution of the people concerned. We came to the conclusion that if people deliberately do this sort of thing they ought to be made to face up to their responsibilities. It was not efficacious if we fined them £20 for doing this. We thought that the fine ought to be much greater than that because this disease is a killer disease—do not let us pretend anything else. If we are to have an Amendment to the Act it ought to be substantial, and show our awareness of the dangers which could result from practices of this kind. We are grateful to the noble Earl for having done this, and on behalf of my noble friends and myself I want to thank him for having moved this Amendment.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Moved, that the Bill do now pass.—(Earl Ferrers.)
§ On Question, Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.