Clause 1 - Rape
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
9:10 am
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
The clause is arguably the most important in the Bill and would, when taken together with clauses 76 and 77, rewrite the law on rape in various ways, including in respect of the tests that should be applied when deciding whether somebody is guilty of rape.
I begin by considering what is rape—indeed, we must start with that when considering subsection (1). I do not wish to enter into detailed discussion at this stage, but I need some reassurance from the Government on their approach to the provision. My amendments, which are linked, would remove the word ''mouth''. A feature of the proposed legislation is that the definition of rape is being widened to include penetration of the mouth by the penis. We must pause for a moment before simply rubber-stamping that measure and consider whether we are doing the right thing. Having said that to the Minister, however, I do not intend to force the amendment to a vote.
The definition of rape has changed considerably in recent years. In the past, rape was vaginal penetration—and that was that. Then Parliament decided to get rid of the offence of buggery and replace that expression with rape. We barristers were a little bit surprised when Parliament did that: my experience of cases of that kind is that juries and individuals differentiated clearly between those two offences, both in the terminology they used to describe what happened and—this is the key point—how they viewed the gravity of such offences. That is ancient history and I do not wish to re-open the matter. However, it has now been decided that it is right to extend the definition of rape further to include penetration of the mouth.
My concern is practical and relates to sentencing. I have read some of the guidelines on rape cases. It is quite apparent already that, despite the merging of rape and buggery into one offence, the approach of the courts is likely to be substantially different, depending on which offence they are dealing with. I suspect that that the same will happen after we extend the definition of rape to include penetration of the mouth. I am interested to hear the views of Committee members on the following question: are we being sensible about this, or ought there to be a separate offence? I have not tried to draft a separate offence during this Committee, although that would be easy. Perhaps we should think about doing that, rather
than just trying to roll everything into one generic description.