COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 21 July 1977)

§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH
My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 13. At the same time, perhaps I might speak to Amendments Nos. 21, 23, 25, 27 and 28. When this Bill was before this House, the noble Lord, Lord Wigoder, suggested that the powers of arrest under this Part of the Bill should be limited to constables in uniform. I undertook to consider the matter further and I subsequently wrote to the noble Lord with the Government's first thoughts, that it was not necessary to make this change in the Bill. Since then we have, as on the previous matter, reflected again, and there was a discussion in Standing Committee on this point. We have come to the conclusion that it is right to make the Amendment which is now before the House, which meets the point of the noble Lord, Lord Wigoder. I beg to move.

§ Lord LEATHERLAND
My Lords, one petty point. The penultimate line on page 6, which is in the area of the Amendment we are considering, says: A constable may arrest without warrant anyone who is, or whom he with reasonable cause, suspects to be, guilty of n offence under this section". Does that mean "an offence" or "no offence"? Both those phrases include the letter "n" which stands in isolation at the foot of this page.

§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH
That is a shrewd point, my Lords, made by my noble friend. I will look into it. Clearly it is a typing mistake which can be dealt with without any formal Amendment coming before the House.