Parliamentary Bills
| Date | 01 April 1968 |
| Published date | 01 April 1968 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836803200208 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Parliamentary
Bills
THE
THEFT
BILL
A
Parliamentary
Bill
does
not
always
reach
the
Statute
Book. Bills are
frequently
amended
before
becoming
Acts
of
Parliament.
This
section
should
be
read
accordingly.
THIS Bill is the brain child
of
the Criminal Law Revision Com-
mittee. This Committee was established in February 1959 by
the then
Home
Secretary
"to
be a standing Committee to examine
such aspects of the criminal law of England
and
Wales as the Home
Secretary
may
from time to time refer to the Committee, to consider
whether the law requires revision
and
to make recommendations".
The
following
month
the Committee was asked to consider larceny
and
kindred offences.
The
Committee reported in April 1966
and
annexed to its
Report
adraft Theft Bill which, with minor changes, is the Bill
now before Parliament.
The
Bill rationalises the law dealing with theft, removes many
of
the high technicalities which surrounded it,
and
provides a
breath
of
fresh
air
before which many musty cobwebs will be blown
away.
It
uses language which, in terms
of
parliamentary draughts-
manship, is colloquial
and
easily understandable.
If
the Committee
does nothing more
it
will, surely, have justified its existence.
The
Larceny Act 1916 is repealed
and
in its place the Bill
creates
and
defines theft", robbery, burglary, removal
of
articles
on show in buildings open to the public, taking amotor vehicle
or
other
conveyance without authority, abstracting electricity,
criminal deception, false accounting, suppression
of
documents,
blackmail, handling stolen goods, advertising rewards for the
return
of
lost or stolen goods or possessing an article for use in burglary,
theft or criminal deception. (When referring to these offences the
maximum
punishment on conviction on indictment is expressed
merely as a
term
of
years).
OFFENCES
THEFT
"Theft"
is the dishonest appropriation of property belonging
to another with the intention of permanently depriving the
other
of
it.
133
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