Animals Act 1971 (Amendment) Bill

My hon. Friend is right; that is why the law makes the distinctions between wild animals and domesticated animals and between normal characteristics, abnormal characteristics and characteristics that appear in certain circumstances or at a certain time, such as when a dog is with its pups. However, that does not deal with my point, which is about the Limitation Act 1980. If the consequence of the Bill would be to halve the limitation period, that would be significant. I do not know whether the hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire has considered the consequences of the limitation period. Has he thought through whether, because he is removing strict liability, the limitation period would be reduced to three years from six years? That is a significant omission from the introduction to the Bill, because it would significantly affect people's rights. The matter is fundamentally important. The Bill contains no commencement clause. I am not sure whether that is an omission or whether it was done deliberately. I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman wants to fall back on the simple, normal commencement arrangements or whether he feels that it would be more appropriate for commencement to be set out in the Bill, so that people are aware of when it will come into force and of how to organise their arrangements around that. Let us consider the case of insurance. If people know when the legislation will change, thus in the unlikely event that insurance policies and premiums changed, that would enable people to know from when they should start negotiating their lower premiums. As I have said, I am sceptical of his argument on insurance, but if we knew that the Bill's provisions were going to come into force in six months' time, people would know when the cut-off period would be when they came to renew their insurance policy. That would greatly benefit people in trying to negotiate insurance arrangements. I have examined the Bill in some detail. There are significant problems with it. There is a significant gap in the way in which the hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire approaches the matter and our opinions differ significantly. I want to preserve the status quo. He wants to reduce the rights of victims of accidents, but I do not. I think that people who have been injured are entitled to compensation, and I hope that he will reflect on my comments.