Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 15 July 1925.
Miss Ellen Wilkinson
, Middlesbrough East
I beg to move, in page 29, line 29, to leave out Subsection (5).
We have had, right through this Bill. statements from the Minister as to new crimes that he is proposing to add—crimes for which people, and particularly women, can be punished. Under this Clause the right hon. Gentleman is proposing to take away a right that a husband and wife have in common-that they shall not be called as witnesses against each other. I am aware that there is a very limited number of cases in which a woman may be called to give evidence against her husband or a husband called to give evidence against his wife. This right under common law has been so jealously guarded that, the Minister ought not, without very grave reasons indeed, to add to the number of cases in which the right may be forfeited. Before this right is done away with, we should have a very good reason assigned by the right hon. Gentleman. I think he would be well advised to withdraw this Sub-section. I speak as a very new Member, but one really gets horrified as one sits in this House day after day and learns the number of new things for which we are constantly asked to punish people. Here we are continuing to do that; we are proposing to take away common law rights that have existed for generation after generation.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
