Clause 18 - Abuse of position of trust: sexual activity with a child
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
2:45 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
As we are raising this matter, now might be a good moment to bring up subsection (1)(e)(ii)—I have flagged it up later in an amendment.
The second possibility under clause 18 is that ''B is under 13''. I have no objection to that, but it will effectively duplicate what already exists. Such action, irrespective of whether a person is in a position of trust, is already made a criminal offence. I wonder whether we are doing a good service to the criminal law by having the offence and identifying a person as under 13 when it is difficult to see what that adds to the other offences earlier in the Bill. Perhaps the Under-Secretary can enlighten us as to the Government's reasoning. Later in the Bill, there is another example, which I have sought to highlight by amending my deletion of part 2. It would be useful if the hon. Gentleman could help us.