§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in view of the growing practice of demonstrators and representatives of anti-democratic extreme political organisations of right and left throwing missiles of a dangerous character at Her Majesty's Ministers and other prominent politicians, and of the fact that invariably the charges made are of causing a breach of the peace with a negligible penalty if found guilty, he will seek either to increase the penalty for this offence or to introduce another defined offence with more severe penalties for such dangerous actions.
§ Mr. MayhewAs to the question of a specific offence of missile throwing and the adequacy of the maximum penalties generally available to the courts for offences of assault, I refer the hon. Member to the reply my right hon. Friend gave on 2 December last year to a question by him.—[Vol. 33, c.287.] The statutory summary offence of conduct conducive to breach of the peace, section 5 of the Public Order Act 1936, is included in my right hon. Friend's review of the 1936 Act and related legislation. But that offence already carries the highest maximum penalties which may be imposed on summary conviction of six months' imprisonment or a fine of £1,000 or both.