Clause 1 - Hunting wild mammals with dogs
Hunting (Re-committed) Bill
10:00 am
Mr Alun Michael (Minister of State (Rural Affairs), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Cardiff South and Penarth, Labour/Co-operative)
The first of the amendments demonstrates the limpid simplicity of what is before us. Clause 1 states:
''A person commits an offence if he hunts a wild mammal with a dog, unless his hunting is
(a) registered for the purpose of pest control, or
(b) exempt.''
If the amendment is approved, we will delete the words
''registered for the purpose of pest control''.
Everything else follows from that. The fact that an offence is committed if hunting takes place, unless it is exempt, remains the case. The possibility that applications could be made to a registrar, or appeals made to a tribunal will be deleted from the Bill. Clause 2 concerns registered hunting. That is no longer relevant following the decision of the House on Monday. I trust that we shall agree that the clause will not become part of the Bill.
Clause 3 deals with exempt hunting. It says that
''Hunting is exempt if it is within a class specified in Schedule 1.''
In many ways, that says it all because that clause will stand as originally intended. We have a long list of amendments to do something simple—removing the remaining architecture of the registrar and tribunal from the Bill in order to make it the simple Bill for which the House of Commons voted by a large majority on Monday.