Serious Crime Bill [HL]

moved AmendmentNo. 77: 77: Schedule 5, page 59, line 39, at end insert— ““ Section 30(4) of the Theft Act 1968 (c. 60) (restriction of proceedings against spouses and civil partners).”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this is the first of two groups of amendments which make changes to Schedule 5. Schedule 5 relates to Clause 56 and sets out minor and consequential amendments to existing legislation. The first group of amendments relates to Part 1 of Schedule 5. The common-law offence of inciting the commission of another offence is repealed by Clause 54. Part 1 of Schedule 5 lists references in existing legislation to the common-law offence of incitement which are to be read as references to the new offences in Clauses 39, 40 and 41. As is the case with respect to Schedule 3, the original list of offences in Schedule 5 was composed by the Law Commission. We have had a careful trawl through existing legislation and have gone on to identify further references to common-law incitement which we think it necessary to add to Schedule 5. These are contained in Amendments Nos. 77, 78 and 81 to 88. They include, for example, the reference to common law incitement in Section 30(4) of the Theft Act 1968 concerning the restriction of proceedings against spouses and civil partners. Section 30(4) of that Act sets out that the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is needed for any prosecution against a person for any offence of stealing or doing unlawful damage to property which belongs to that person’s wife, husband or civil partner, or for any attempt, incitement or conspiracy to commit such an offence. We are not entirely certain that we have the contents of Part 1 exactly right, and our officials are still going through the results of the trawl of legislation to ensure that no other provisions need to be added to Part 1. Perhaps I should invite your Lordships also to offer up any that they think we have missed; that would be very helpful. There is already a power to amend the list in Part 1 of Schedule 5 by order under Clause 56(3). However, as is the case with Schedule 3, we will seek to make any further changes that we identify during the Bill’s proceedings. I hope that, having heard that technical and clarifying information, noble Lords will feel happy to accept the amendments. I beg to move.