4.3 pm
Criminal Law (Amendment) (Householder Protection) Bill
3:48 pm
Mr Stephen Pound (Ealing North, Labour)
Yet again, I am grateful to my hon. Friend, although I am slighted by her refusal to examine legislation in a communal hot tub. Her point is serious and touches on the point about a person fleeing from premises, which the hon. and gallant Member for Newark brought up in an earlier intervention. We have to consider boundaries and define them. In the absence of any other topographical definition, I have simply included that of the domain of the ground of the garden around the house. I think that that is sensible and logical. As I said earlier, I have not mentioned second homes, subsidiary homes or flats, and I have also not included au pairs in another amendment. There is a world of exceptions, but the core of the Bill is that it relates to the confidence of the nation’s citizens in their ability to defend themselves and, in turn, be defended by the law. I respect the hon. and gallant Member for Newark for seeking to do that, and I seek to assist him in that noble cause. Talking of noble causes, I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead.