Clause 16 - Renewal of application
Hunting Bill
7:20 pm
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative)
The Bill as drafted says that an applicant may be refused for certain matters
''specified in subsection (4).
Those matters are
(c) conviction for an offence under the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996''
among other things. I am sure that anybody who carried out such an offence would be rehabilitated. None the less, he would be convicted for it and, as the Bill reads, one conviction would last for life. If one is convicted for an offence under that Act, one is banned from making any more applications for life. That is how the Bill reads at present. No mention is made of rehabilitation.
Alun Michael indicated dissent.