Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I hope noble Lords will not lose the plot when I respond. I preferred the first of the two versions of ““The Italian Job””, finding it easier to follow, but perhaps that shows my simple approach to these matters. As the noble Baroness says, Amendment No. 98 would remove Clause 42(8), which sets out that the ““doing of an act””—referring to P’s act—includes: "““a failure to act … the continuation of an act that has already begun … an attempt … to act””." We do not think that it would be desirable to follow the amendment. The inclusion of a failure to act means that D could encourage P not to act, where P’s failure to act would amount to the conduct element of the offence. For example, D encourages P to starve V, her child, to death. D could be guilty of encouraging and assisting murder. This subsection does not impose liability for omissions on D, but refers to P’s act or failure to act. Liability for omissions is dealt with in Clause 58 and covers only those situations in which D has a duty to act and fails to do so. Subsection (8) was included in the Law Commission’s draft Bill and includes situations that should fall within these offences. For that reason we continue to resist Amendment No. 98. The provision does not have the effect that the noble Baroness said it might. It does not break an action or offence. However, the note that I have is not as clear as I should like. I shall include a working example in the further correspondence because it might be a bit clearer than what I have in front of me. I apologise for that. However, we have set out fairly clearly how we intend this to work. I refer the noble Baroness to Clause 58 as it may assist her in understanding how this will operate.