I do not think that I explained myself fully. In the old days, common assault was punishable by six months’ imprisonment, as was assault of a police officer in the execution of his duty. After the 2003 Act, all summary offences enacted from that point onwards were punishable by a sentence of 51 weeks divided, as the Minister has explained. Why have a separate offence of assaulting a police officer, a Customs officer or an immigration official when the penalty is exactly the same as for common assault? Presumably, common assault could be assimilated into the other offences dealt with under the 2003 Act and the penalty for it could be replaced by the 51 weeks, which is applicable to all summary offences from that point onwards. If the penalty for assaulting whoever, whether it is a member of the public, an immigration official or a customs official, is still going to be 51 weeks, why have a special offence created under this Bill?
UK Borders Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Avebury
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Lords on Monday, 2 July 2007.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee proceeding on UK Borders Bill.
About this proceeding contribution
Reference
693 c68-9GC Session
2006-07Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand CommitteeSubjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-12-15 12:49:42 +0000
URI
http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_407284
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_407284
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_407284