Clause 63 - Application to Court of Appeal
Criminal Justice Bill
4:50 pm
Mr Hilary Benn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leeds Central, Labour)
It may be helpful if I say that we intend all the normal safeguards of criminal procedure to apply in full when a trial is conducted in accordance with the provisions of part 10, including the presumption of innocence as normal. I stress the words ''as normal'', because they mean no more and no less than that. The trials that we are considering are not different or special. They are ordinary trials being conducted as a result of special circumstances, for which the Bill makes provision.
I understand the hon. Gentleman's point, but it does not sit very easily with what I just said. It suggests some presumption of acquittal over and above the presumption of innocence, and I am not sure what a court would make of that. Clearly, we wish the trial to proceed in the usual way, on the evidence and without prejudice to the ultimate outcome, and that is one reason why the Government favour the formulation in the Bill.
However, there is another reason. I was asked whether there was any other provision in legislation for the quashing of an acquittal. The answer is, yes, in section 54(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996—I am a bit slower than my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar—which makes provision for the quashing of tainted acquittals.