Clause 67 - Procedure and evidence
Criminal Justice Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Hilary Benn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leeds Central, Labour)
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will be reassured when I tell him that public funding will be available for these hearings, for the application by the prosecution to quash the acquittal and for any retrial ordered by the Court of Appeal. I can go into detail about how it would be provided if he wishes me to do so.
Funding is already available for retrial under section 12(2) of the Access to Justice Act 1999, and a model of the regulation for the application hearing already exists in the form of regulation 3(3) of the Criminal Defence Service (General)(No. 2) Regulations 2001, which deals with quashing an acquittal under the Criminal Procedure and Investigation Act 1996. They are considered incidental to the proceedings. The amendment is undesirable, as section 12 of the 1999 Act refers not to specific types of case, but only to broad categories, and changing the scope of CDS for those purposes would entail a specific reference to the Bill that we prefer to avoid. We would prefer to amend the regulations under section 12(2)(g).
The amendment is unnecessary, as the Government have already recognised the need to make funding available for the applications and the subsequent substantive hearings.