Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill [H.L.] (Hansard, 4 February 1981)

§ Lord Wigoder
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time. In doing so, may I just 1272 for one moment read the roll of those who have supported this Bill, both inside and outside your Lordships' House? I do so in the hope that it might encourage the other place, in due course, to realise that this is a widely supported, short, uncontroversial measure which, although modest, is nevertheless of some little significance.
Inside your Lordships' House, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Widgery, when he was Lord Chief Justice, came specially to support this Bill. Two former Lord Chancellors, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Elwyn-Jones, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Gardiner, have indicated their support. The noble Lord, Lord Boston of Faversham, has done likewise from the Opposition Front Bench. Furthermore, three Law Lords have told me that I may cite their names in support of this measure—the noble and learned Lord, Lord Diplock, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Edmund-Davies, and the late Lord Dilhorne.
Outside your Lordships' House, the objective of this Bill has had the support of Lord Justice Lawton, who is chairman of the Criminal Law Revision Committee. Perhaps I should also remind your Lordships that the Bill is very much on the lines of a Parliamentary Answer given by the Attorney-General, Sir Michael Havers, on 25th June 1979. I think that the Bill is also on the lines of the Law Society's Memorandum of Evidence to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure.
Finally, may I thank the noble Lord, Lord Belstead, and his officials and the parliamentary draftsmen for their very great assistance, and for the support which they have been throughout the passage of this Bill. I am deeply grateful to them. My Lords, I beg to move.

§ Lord Boston of Faversham
My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord, Lord Wigoder, for his kind words and, also, to offer my congratulations from these Benches, both on having introduced this Bill and on having piloted it through your Lordships' House so far. Although it is a modest measure in terms of length, I nevertheless feel most strongly that, if passed by Parliament, it will play a significant part in the administration of justice. I only hope that your Lordships will feel disposed to pass it and speed it on its way to another place, where I hope, too, that it will be favourably received.

§ Lord Sandys
My Lords, for the Government, I should like to say that the Bill to which the House is invited to give a Third Reading tonight has found a wide measure of support among your Lordships. Indeed, the only amendments which the House has seen fit to make during the passage of the Bill have been moved by the noble Lord, Lord Wigoder, himself, and none of those has affected the basic principle of the Bill. As my noble friend Lord Belstead said on the occasion of the Third Reading of the noble Lord's Bill in the last Session of Parliament, this Bill, too, is in every sense Lord Wigoder's Bill. Indeed, if it is given a Third Reading by your Lordships' House the Government, for their part, will watch with interest to see whether it also commands support when it is considered in another place.