[Part II]
Hunting Bill
5:50 pm
Mr Paddy Tipping (Sherwood, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman helpfully leads me on, because I also am of the opinion that the amendment toughens up the test and makes a case harder to prove. I was conscious that the hon. Member for Mid-Worcestershire said—I believe that I heard him correctly—that his impression of the effect of clause 8 was that foxhunting as we know it would, by and large, disappear.
The Committee must discuss what clause 8 actually means, because one of the criticisms of the Bill and this clause is that, in a sense, Parliament is sub-contracting the decisions. We are asking a body that is yet to be set up and a registrar who is yet to be appointed to make decisions that Parliament has voted on many times over many years. For my sake and for the sake of the Committee, the House and interest groups, we need clarity about what the clause actually means and what will be left to the registrar to decide.
I am with the hon. Member for North Wiltshire. My reading of the clause is that it will mean an end to local foxhunting—the sport of foxhunting as we know
it. What advice has my right hon. Friend the Minister received? He has worked diligently and hard on the Bill and it is a good, subtle and sophisticated Bill, but what does it mean? We must have that discussion, as my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham said. We need certainty.
My position is clear: I have always voted against the sport of foxhunting. However, I want to know what we are voting for. If I am not clear about that now in Committee I want an opportunity to clarify the matter when the Bill returns to the House on Report. The worst thing that we could do as a Parliament would be to let legislation go from our House to the other place without a clear understanding of what we have shaped and voted for.