Committee (6th Day)

Part of Coroners and Justice Bill – in the House of Lords at 2:45 pm on 9 July 2009.

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Photo of Lord Low of Dalston Lord Low of Dalston Crossbench 2:45, 9 July 2009

I wish to put a point to the noble Lord that I hope he finds helpful. One thing that has been made clear to us in the debate is that the Attorney-General's fiat comes much too late and is not a sufficient safeguard, as a lot of the damage to people who wish to practise the right of free speech is done long before the matter comes to the prosecuting authorities or the courts or anything of that kind. The point that has been made is that the guidance is not sufficiently helpful in emphasising to the police the imperatives of free speech and that more weight should be given to that in the guidance. Does the noble Lord agree that it could be helpful to this whole issue if the Government would revisit the guidance on these questions?