I beg to move amendment No. 203, in

clause 28, page 14, line 31, leave out sub-paragraph (ii).

It is at moments such as this that I miss my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield because, as I rise to move the amendment, which he drafted with such care, I look into the innermost recesses of my mind to ask myself what he had in mind when drafting it. I am

quite clearly of the view that while I was out of the Room making a phone call a little earlier this afternoon a similar point cropped up and that my hon. Friend advanced his argument then. One of my hopes is that my hon. Friend, with his normal courtesy, told the Solicitor-General a day or two ago exactly what his argument on this amendment was going to be. That will enable her when she responds to my moving of the amendment to tell me what my hon. Friend intended.

My instinct is to say this. I think that my hon. Friend and I seek in this amendment, which concerns a child being under 13, to make the point that we must examine clause 28, clause 18 and clause 11. The word ''duplication'' comes to mind. I am looking desperately at the Solicitor-General to see if that is the point, and I think that it is. In any event, that is how I propose to lay my argument out. I also think that there is a sentencing issue here, to which the hon. and learned Member for Redcar alluded earlier. That is an important point, which I hope that the Solicitor-General will address at length when she answers. There seems to be duplication here. Is not this point already covered in clause 11?

I hope that I have outlined the arguments satisfactorily.