Clause 45 — Meaning of "qualifying trigger"

Part of Bill Presented – in the House of Commons at 7:45 pm on 9 November 2009.

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Photo of Claire Ward Claire Ward Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice 7:45, 9 November 2009

I completely disagree with the hon. and learned Gentleman. The judge and indeed juries are quite capable of considering the information that is available to them as background information. We are saying that it is completely unacceptable that sexual infidelity in itself should be used as the trigger to allow the defence of loss of self-control to come into play. That is essentially what this is about, and I am quite surprised that Mr. Hogg feels that it is appropriate-indeed, this featured in the case he discussed-for somebody who has committed sexual infidelity to be told by their killer, or for it to be determined in a court case by their killer, that that is essentially just cause. "You have committed sexual infidelity and that is just cause for me to commit murder," is not an acceptable claim.