Results 1-20 of 77 for hunting speaker:Rob Marris

Written Answers — Environment Food and Rural Affairs: Hunting with Dogs (23 May 2006)

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many responses were received to the Government's consultation on hunting with dogs.

Oral Answers to Questions — Constitutional Affairs: Hunting Act (30 Nov 2004)

Mr Rob Marris: The work load of the Court Service could increase, because before the Hunting Bill was passed, a number of magistrates said that they would defy the Act. What steps are being taken to deal with the effect that it could have on the work load of the Court Service if we have fewer magistrates?

Hunting Bill: New Clause 13 — Registered Hunting: Absolute Bans: Deer, Hares, Foxes and Terrierwork (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...of the enforceability of the ban on hare coursing and how the Bill would make it easier for the police. Could not the same arguments be used as to the easier enforceability of a complete ban on fox hunting as envisaged in new clause 11?

Hunting Bill (Programme) (No. 3) (30 Jun 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...be unworkable. I should be grateful to him if he could explain to the House how it would be unworkable given that part 2, which deals with registration, could still have effect in relation to hunting other wild mammals not specifically mentioned in the Bill, such as wild boar.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 51 - Transitional arrangements (27 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...The overheads of a public house include staff costs, and a publican might have to decide whether to lay off staff. The hon. Gentleman referred to a similar point concerning the staff employed by a hunt, whether it was the late great Captain Ronnie—whoever he was—or anyone else. A hunt would have to make a commercial decision if the long-stop 12-month period that I want to...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 51 - Transitional arrangements (27 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...around. The hon. Gentleman undercut his argument by talking about skilled staff. Some pub staff are skilled and may get another job in another pub, but the expectation is that there may not be many hunts around with which hunt staff might find another job.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 51 - Transitional arrangements (27 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...with the presumption that someone is innocent until found guilty. That is not the case. Both the Bill and the long-stop provision that I seek to introduce would mean that someone could not carry on hunting beyond that 12-month period without registration. In a scenario such as that mentioned by the hon. Gentleman, registration would not have come through and the offence would be hunting...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 51 - Transitional arrangements (27 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...to get things moving quickly and to ensure that we do not have endless uncertainty and the sort of thing that it has been suggested is going on under the Act passed in Scotland, where de facto hunting is taking place. In our case, de jure hunting would be going on because if people were to apply for registration within the first three months, they would be able to continue their hunting...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (27 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...(4), which refers to a dog belonging to somebody. That phrase appears in clause 4(2), which refers to the ''commission of an offence'' under clause 1. Clause 1 refers to the offence in relation to hunting and that takes us back to clause 45(2). We have to bear all that in mind. The hon. and learned Member for Harborough talked about his two dogs running around in his garden, which,...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: Not a gallop, I am afraid. In his near-closing remarks, the hon. Member for North Wiltshire again fastened on the point that my amendment is designed, perhaps inexpertly, to address. In fox hunting and in the shorthand that I have chosen to employ the word for the instant kill is something like ''chop''. That would not be an offence under the Bill, because the person could say, ''The...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...dogs eating a hare, he might deduce that there had been a pursuit. However, if the individual said ''No, this is a chop. There is no pursuit here. We have committed no offence, because we weren't hunting'', the police officer probably would not be able to launch a prosecution. However, I am reassured.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: I understood my right hon. Friend the Minister to say—perhaps I misheard him—that hunting necessarily involved pursuit. If so, why does the Bill have the word ''pursuit'' in subsection (2)(a) and (b)? It is redundant.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...beginning. The title of clause 45 is ''Interpretation'', so the clause does not create offences, but deal with ingredients of them. My amendment No. 354 is designed to clarify the definition of hunting, not to create or exempt any offence elsewhere in the Bill. It is concerned with the ingredients of the offence of hunting and its key word is ''employs'', which connotes a positive action....

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...45 does not create any offences; it deals only with the ingredients of an offence. Let me make it clearer than I did before. Someone out walking with four dogs might think, ''I'll do a little foxhunting or hare hunting today''. They round the bend and a hare is immediately killed with no pursuit. My reading of the clause—my right hon. Friend will correct me if I am wrong—is...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...leading one. I want to step back from that, perhaps to the hon. Gentleman's surprise. For any David Attenboroughs, it is pretty clear what a mammal is. It is clear that people do not generally go hunting cetaceans with dogs. They do not go hunting bats with dogs, because of the other protections in our legislation and because of the nature of the beast. However, many other quadrupeds,...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: .... It may sadden the hon. Gentleman to know that that does not detract from my point, which is that the Eastern Counties otter hounds switched initially, because of the difficulties of chasing and hunting otters, to hunting coypu, which at that point were a problem in East Anglia. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food got rid of coypu without, MAFF might argue, the assistance of...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: Or wild boar, as my hon. Friend says. She may be interested to know that yesterday in Spain a hunt of wild boar was stopped, because there are so many illegal immigrants in southern Spain that the Spaniards were worried they would get shot by people out shooting wild boar. Wild boar are hunted on the continent. I am not aware, though again I stand to be corrected by those with greater...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 45 - Interpretation (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...make excellent wine. [Interruption.] There are also the Wroxeter vineyards, which are very ancient, but that need not detain us. If amendment No. 43 were agreed, the Bill became an Act and the hunting of those four species in some form or other was banned or strongly discouraged, those who currently hunt one of them might switch, primarily to wild boar, but perhaps to stoats, weasels or...

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 40 - Arrest (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: .... I would like a further explanation—he went into the matter in part when we discussed the amendment—why, with the penalties that can be levied under clause 39, we are making illegal hunting an arrestable offence. I have grave reservations about that and would like an explanation.

Public Bill Committee: Hunting Bill: Clause 40 - Arrest (25 Feb 2003)

Mr Rob Marris: ...can arrest people for obstructing a police officer in the course of his or her duty. If a police officer shows up at an event that he or she thinks might be going to be hare coursing or illegal hunting and tells them to move on or desist in that activity, they could be arrested for obstruction if they do not do so. I am still not convinced that the section 1 and 7 offences should per se be...