Clause 67 - Sexual activity in a public lavatory
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
3:30 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has missed the point. What troubled those in the other place was that it would be possible to have sexual activity in a public lavatory, in a cubicle and therefore not visibly, that could escape the scope of the Public Order Act in certain circumstances. It was their anxiety about that and the fact that they considered it extremely undesirable that public lavatories should be used for sexual activity, whether behind the cubicle door or anywhere else, that led them to propose the clause. On that I agree with those in the other place. I got the impression that most Committee members, including perhaps the hon. Gentleman, also accepted that that was correct as a principle.