Clause 84 - Defendant's bad character
Criminal Justice Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Hilary Benn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leeds Central, Labour)
We are dealing with three main questions. First, should the approach be inclusionary or exclusionary? Secondly, should leave be applied for, for bad character to be admitted? Thirdly, to which categories should the safeguards of subsection (3) apply, in respect of subsection (1)? I shall try to address each of those in turn.
Amendment No. 472, which the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome moved, appears to introduce a small linguistic change, but, as he acknowledges, the issue is about a difference of view on the approach to be taken. The Bill's drafting is quite deliberate. The substantive issue is that the amendment would make a general rule for a defendant's bad character exclusionary, rather than inclusionary, which is the Government's approach. At present, the law assumes that such relevant evidence should not be heard unless the hurdles are overcome. We propose a different starting point.