Clause 67 - Sexual activity in a public lavatory
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
3:45 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I simply remake the point that if the activity is causing harassment, alarm, distress, or outrage, those engaging in it can be prosecuted under existing legislation. I am dealing with a specific difficulty and the fact that the clause is in the Bill. We must either knock it out or make it workable. We are proposing amendments that make it workable.
My hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda asked about registration. The answer is no, there will be no consequence in terms of registration. On the definition of the word ''public'', in relation to a public lavatory, he will know that MPs are part of the public, therefore the toilets to which he referred in this building are public. Toilets in and near the lobby of a hotel are public toilets, because the public are able to use them. We are trying to exclude toilets that are clearly private, for example in a person's home.
In answer to the question of whether the offence requires two people, no, it does not, and it never did. One person is covered by this measure.
Finally, as a local Member of Parliament as much as anything else, I have to say that the people who come to my surgery to raise issues of disquiet about public toilets do not mention sexual activity. However, they mention dirty needles, filth, the state of the toilets and the fact that they cannot get access to them when they need them. Public lavatories are for people to use and any encumbrance that prevents them from doing so, or which causes harm, must be deprecated and dealt with. In this instance it is being dealt with in the Bill.
Amendment agreed to.
Amendments made: No. 119, in
clause 67, page 32, line 33, leave out 'activity within subsection (2),' and insert 'an activity, and'.
No. 120, in
clause 67, page 32, line 35, leave out subsection (2) and insert—
'( ) For the purposes of this section, an activity is sexual if a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances but regardless of any person's purpose, consider it to be sexual.'.
No. 121, in
clause 67, page 33, line 1, leave out subsection (3).
No. 122, in
clause 67, page 33, line 5, leave out from 'exceeding' to end of line 7 and insert
'level 5 on the standard scale or both.'.—[Paul Goggins.]
Clause 67, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.