Schedule 3 - Hunting with dogs: prohibition
Hunting Bill
10:30 am
Mr Edward Leigh (Gainsborough, Conservative)
I am sure that it was.
Even those who want to abolish hunting are not arguing that it harms the wider population. Over the centuries, Parliament in its wisdom—or unwisdom—has made offences of many activities that do not harm people. For instance, until relatively recently—compared with the lifetimes of those in this Room—Parliament took the view that it was an offence to commit a homosexual act, even though such an act harmed nobody. Every member of this Committee will agree that Parliament was right to decide to change that law. We can argue about whether the age of homosexual consent should be 16, 18 or 21, but because homosexual acts harm no one, the law has been changed.
Similarly, the law was changed in respect of attempted suicide—which used also to be a criminal offence—because it harms no one else. Substantial criminal liabilities, fines and so on used also to be attached to the carrying out of abortions. Although abortion is still a subject of great debate, Parliament has moved on. Even those who, like me, strongly oppose abortion realise that it is very difficult to imprison women who want to destroy beings that can have no life outside their bodies.
Given that Parliament has moved on from making criminal offences of activities that do not harm someone else, I am unsure why we are criminalising hunting with dogs. When creating a criminal offence, one must have the moral courage to say that it is not a civil tort that can be remedied by a fine, but an offence that has a serious impact on others. Those who impose the penalty should have the moral courage to impose imprisonment. In that respect, Deadline 2000 is more logical than the Minister.