Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 21 Mawrth 1979.
Mr George Cunningham
, Islington South and Finsbury
12:00,
21 Mawrth 1979
Yes, it does, and that is the sort of remark one might make, but it is not what one expects to be produced by someone whom one pays to produce a report on the subject. One expects him to produce something rather fatter on fact and more persuasive rationally than that.
Some of the things which Lord Shackleton might have mentioned if he had done a less sloppy job on the subject would be these. Until 1967 there was on the statute book the offence of misprision of a felony. Then we abolished felonies, so we abolished misprision of a felony, and it was doubtful whether misprision of a felony would have extended to mere withholding of information. There is no reference to that in Shackleton's two paragraphs.
Next, Lord Shackleton might have said that there already is an offence on the statute book relating to the withholding from the police of information about an offence. It is an offence to withhold such information from the police so long as one takes a bribe for it. Thus, quite apart from this Act, the present position is that if some men of the IRA say to someone who knows that they intend to plant a bomb"Do not tell the police and we will give you 100 quid ", that is an offence, but it is not an offence if the person says"No, I will do it for love of the IRA and I do not want your £100 ". One would have thought that that consideration might just have crept into one of Shackleton's paragraphs. But it is not mentioned at all.
I conclude, therefore, that the two paragraphs on this subject in the report should not be taken by the Government as a sufficient basis for reconsidering section 11 next year. If we are to reconsider this section next year—by all means, let us reconsider all the sections next year—let us do it upon some competent basis and not on the basis of this sloppy job on the subject done by the noble Lord, Lord Shackleton.
I suggest that in the light of the existence of section 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967, already on the statute book relating to the withholding of information, there really is a case not only for retaining this provision in the Act now before us but for actually regarding it as a normal part of our law, despite the obvious difficulties about which we all know. In my view, this section is less deserving of review and termination than many of the others which exist already in the Act.
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