HL Deb 22 July 1988 vol 499 cc1610-1

77 Clause 33, page 22, line 16, leave out 'section' and insert 'Part of this Act'.

78 Page 22, line 17, at end, insert— '(1A) Subject to Rules of Court, the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal under section 35 below shall be exercised by the Criminal division of the Court, and references to the Court of Appeal in this Part of this Act shall be construed as references to that division.'

79 Page 22, line 18, leave out 'section' and insert 'Part of this Act'.

80 Page 22, line 24, leave out 'section' and insert 'Part of this Act'.

81 Page 22, line 30, leave out from "'sentence"' to end of line 33 and insert 'has the same meaning as in the Criminal Appeal Act 1968, except that it does not include an interim hospital order under Part III of the Mental Health Act 1983'.

82 Page 22, line 36, leave out '(7)' and insert '(6A)'.

83 Page 22, line 36, at end, insert—

'(6A) Subsection (1A) shall be omitted'.

84 Page 23, line 9, leave out 'reference in subsection (5) to' and insert 'references in subsection (5) to the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 and'.

85 Page 23, line 10. leave out 'construed as a reference to' and insert 'respectively construed as references to Part I of the Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act 1980 and'.

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I beg to move that this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 77 to 85. In doing so, I should like to speak to Amendments Nos. 290 and 291 as well. They are all strictly drafting amendments.

Moved, That this House do agree with the Commons in the said amendments.—(Earl Ferrel's.)

Lord Renton

My Lords, although my noble friend has said that this is merely a drafting matter, there is a drafting point to which I wish to draw attention in the hope that in future the same mistake will not be made again. In Amendment No. 78 we find that, subject to rules of court, we are going to legislate to the effect that: the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal …shall be exercised by the Criminal division", and so on. When we indulge in primary legislation, surely it should not be subject to rules of court. In this particular example, I think it is quite unnecessary to say that. If Parliament decides that the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal shall be exercised by the Criminal Division of that court, that should be the law. We do not want to have the possibility of that being altered at a later stage by rules of court. I do not expect my noble friend to reply to that point unless he cares to rise and say that note will be taken of it.

Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone

My Lords, there may be something in what my noble friend says. However, it is possible that he has not fully considered this possibility. In order to achieve what the statute will now say if the Motion to agree with the Commons is carried, it may be necessary to spell it out in detail by rules of court. The power of the rules committee extends, unless I am mistaken, to the amendment of statute. It also extends to filling in the details which a statute requires to be filled in before it can be effective.

Earl Ferrers

My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lord Renton for saying that he did not expect a reply from me unless I cared to take note of what he said. I am quite happy to say that I shall take note of what he said, as well as taking note of what my noble and learned friend Lord Hailsham said.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

12.30 p.m.