Clause 30 - Notification of names of experts
Criminal Justice Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
The clause deals with notification of the names and addresses of experts instructed by the accused, and the amendments would simply make it optional, rather than compulsory.
I want to take the opportunity to raise two issues, so that we need not return to them on clause stand part. First, the defence often seek expert reports. That is less true in legally aided cases, in which one must get authority to instruct experts. Defendants in such cases are unlikely to seek out and use a variety of experts, but those who are not legally aided, and who have the necessary finances, can do so. In seeking helpful expert reports, however, the defence may come across several bits of so-called expert advice that are not at all helpful, and the same may be true of the prosecution. The concern is that no prejudice should be attached to trying to find someone to deal adequately with a specific point, when the first so-called expert that one was advised to consult was unable to deliver.
There is also a constitutional point. There is obviously an entitlement not to incriminate oneself. There is plenty of case law on that, and there are plenty of precedents of judges ruling that measures must be taken to avoid self-incrimination. Have the Minister and his colleagues asked themselves whether the clause—with its compulsory, rather than optional element—prejudices that entitlement? Does it cross a line and put the defendant at risk by requiring him to reveal information that may be unnecessary? He may provide it in all innocence and in good faith, but it may not be helpful to him, through no fault of his own.