Schedule 3 - Hunting with dogs: prohibition
Hunting Bill
10:15 am
Mr Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed, Liberal Democrat)
I have sought to deal with that point and others in later amendments. The issue is not about the certainty that the police will prosecute, but about the possibility that they might. To give an analogy, the gentleman in Sunderland who is being prosecuted for giving his customers what they want in terms of weights and measures has chosen the uncomfortable role of martyr. Many others would not want to go to court and risk prosecution if the law said that they could not control pests in this way. Their activities would be circumscribed by the fear of prosecution.