§ 43 Page 26, line 31. after ("k") insert ("(Codes of practice),").
§ 44 Page 26, line 34, after ("each") insert ("or either").
§
45 Page 26, line 42, at end insert—
("and
(f) section (Codes of practice) (4)(a) is omitted.").
§ Amendment No. 34 is a new clause to be added to Part III which will enable Ministers to prepare and issue codes of practice to provide practical guidance on how the requirements of this legislation may be met. The Government have already indicated that the control of pesticides must be exercised through both regulations and codes of practice, in order not to overwhelm suppliers and users of pesticides with an over-rigid system of rules. This amendment gives these codes a legal status and also provides for proper public consultation about them and for the participation of Parliament in their adoption. Amendments Nos. 43 to 45 are necessary technical consequential amendments. My Lords, I beg to move.
§ Moved, That this House do agree with the Commons in the said amendment.—(Lord Belstead.)
§ Lord Edmund-DaviesMy Lords, perhaps I may inquire of the noble Lord the Minister whether he is quite happy about subsections (6) and (7). Subsection (6) reads:
A failure on the part of any person to follow any guidance contained in a code issued under this section shall not of itself render that person liable to proceedings of any kind.So a breach of the guidelines does not automatically constitute the commission of an offence. Subsection (7) reads:In all criminal proceedings any such code shall be admissible in evidence; and if any provision of such a code appears to the court conducting the proceedings to be relevant to any question arising in the proceedings, it shall be taken into account in determining that question.It seems to me a little opaque and I am rising only to ask the noble Lord the Minister whether he is quite satisfied that there is no possible ambiguity and confusion likely to arise, or capable of arising, from the framing of the two subsections. I do not have an amendment in mind. I raise the question only to be quite sure that it has received adequate attention.
§ Lord John-MackieMy Lords, the noble Lord said that the codes were to be given legal status. I do not 438 think you can give a code legal status. It is just guidance. It is the same point as the noble and learned Lord has raised.
§ Lord BelsteadMy Lords, perhaps I may take first the question of the noble Lord, Lord John-Mackie. All I meant there is that we were making it clear that the code could be used in evidence in a court of law. Perhaps I may now reply to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Edmund-Davies. I am advised that subsections (6) and (7) of this new clause are a fairly common form of words which have been used before when Parliament has decided that the code is to be a code which will have legal effect.
The noble and learned Lord, who knows so much more about these matters than I do, will know very well that codes have different statuses. We seem to pepper legislation now with codes of practice. Sometimes they are simply codes and have no particular standing at all. My official advice is that the effect of subsections (6) and (7) is fairly common where a code is said to have legal status, making it clear that:
A failure on the part of any person to follow any guidance contained in a code… shall not of itself render that person liable to proceedings of any kind".But if there are proceedings, this, is the kind of code which can then be called in evidence.
§ Lord Edmund-DaviesMy Lords, I should like to express my gratitude to the noble Lord the Minister.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.