§ 5.21 p.m.
§ Report received.
§ Lord NEWALL moved the following Amendment:
§ Page 6, line 34, leave out (" Act 1912, the Protection of Animals Act 1934 ") and insert (" Acts 1912 to 1964 ").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, once again, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Chelwood who is unable to be with us this afternoon, I should like to move this Amendment. It is purely a technical Amendment to correct a minor omission in the Bill. Clause 6(2) gives a court power to disqualify a person from keeping any dangerous wild animal if he is convicted of various offences. The offences in question are those in the Bill itself, or those created by a number of other animal welfare Acts. Some of these extend to the whole of Great Britain but, in the case of the Protection of Animals Acts, separate Acts exist for England and Wales and for Scotland.
§
The Bill cites the whole of this code, amounting to some half a dozen or so separate Acts in respect of England and Wales, by referring to the Protection of Animals Acts 1911 to 1964. In the case of Scotland, however, the Bill cites only the 1912 Act and makes no reference to the later Acts which correspond with the English equivalents. To secure consistency, therefore, and to avoid creating a situation in which the power of the courts to disqualify was different on either side of the Border for what was essentially the same offence, the Amendment includes the later Scottish Acts by amending the reference to read,
Protection of Animals (Scotland) Acts 1912 to 1964 ".
§ I must add that, considering that this Bill has come from another place, it is rather unfortunate that we are having to make a drafting Amendment at this rather late stage, but as the omission was not found by the Home Office until very recently there was nothing else we could 1351 do. Perhaps the legal department has been snowed under with work on other Bills. My Lords, I beg to move.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.