Part of Orders of the Day — Statistics of Trade Bill – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 25 Ebrill 1947.
I only wish to put one point. The words which the right hon. Gentleman seeks to insert are an improvement on the wording of the Clause as it stands. There is still one defect remaining which I hope the right hon. and learned Gentleman will consider. After a first conviction it seems to me that a man ought to have a reasonable time to make a return and should not immediately be even technically guilty of a second offence. He has not had time to put the matter right. The right hon. and learned Gentleman said that he might have had time in the interval between the serving of the original summons and the prosecution, but at that time he might have bona fide but quite erroneously considered that he had a good defence. While the present Amendment is an improvement on the Clause as it stands he ought, I think, to provide expressly that the man should have a reasonable time in which to make a return before he becomes guilty of a second offence.