Serious Crime Bill [HL]

moved AmendmentNo. 51: 51: Clause 44, page 28, line 1, at end insert— ““(5A) The Secretary of State may by order amend Schedule 3.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this group of amendments relates to Schedule 3, which, as noble Lords will remember from our discussion in Committee, contains a list of offences which are statutory forms of incitement or other inchoate offences. The effect of Clause 44(4) of the Bill and inclusion in Schedule 3 is that the offences are disregarded for the purposes of Clauses 40 and 41. It will not be an offence to encourage or assist the offences in Schedule 3 unless a person intends his action to assist or encourage the commission of those offences. This is to ensure that liability for inchoate offences does not extend too far. It follows the scheme of the Law Commission’s draft. We predicted that Amendments Nos. 52 to 58 would be necessary in Committee. They add offences to Schedule 3 in addition to the original list composed by the Law Commission. The approach we have taken in adding these offences is consistent with the approach taken by the commission in that they are statutory forms of incitement or statutory forms of assistance or encouragement. These offences include, for example, Sections 19 and 20 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Section 19 is an offence of inciting any other offence under the Act. Section 20 is assisting or inducing commission outside the United Kingdom of an offence punishable under corresponding law. These are statutory forms of incitement and assistance, and we believe that encouraging or assisting other persons to commit these offences should only be an offence itself where a person intended the other to commit that offence. Therefore we believe they should be added to Schedule 3. The final two amendments, Amendments Nos. 51 and 126, would add an order-making power subject to the affirmative resolution procedure to enable changes to be made to Schedule 3. We have already identified some offences which we believe should be added to the schedule, but it is possible that there will be more. For example, as a result of our trawl we have found some statutory offences of incitement in local government legislation that we think ought to be added to Schedule 3. We are endeavouring to complete this exercise during the passage of the Bill, but are not yet confident that we have a complete list. It is therefore a wise precaution to take a powerto amend Schedule 3 subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. The basic purpose of the schedule is to limit rather than to extend liability, and I hope noble Lords will agree that it is sensible to have a power to keep the list under review. As this is an order-making power, the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has considered the effects of Amendments Nos. 51 and 126. It reported this morning and has drawn the attention of the House to the fact that the power could be used to remove a provision from Schedule 3 as well as add to it. That is correct. At this stage we do not have in mind any offences that we want to remove from the schedule, but it is conceivable that in the future there might be concerns about restricting liability for offences in the schedule. In that case, we would want to avoid the need to pass further primary legislation to extend liability to those who believe that that offence would be committed. The order-making power is subject to the affirmative resolution procedure, so any attempt by the Government to remove an offence from Schedule 3 would need to be agreed by Parliament, and that in our view is sufficient. In view of my explanation, which I hope has been clear for noble Lords, I beg to move.