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Criminal Law (Amendment) (Protection of Property) Bill

I see the force of my hon. Friend’s argument, but in such circumstances the Attorney-General would be acting as a Law Officer, not as a politician. Perhaps a better way forward is to suggest that the decision be taken by the Director of Public Prosecutions personally—an alternative that would probably achieve the same objective. For completeness, the CPS gave a number of examples of people actually being prosecuted. In one case, a man laid in wait on commercial premises for a burglar, caught him, tied him up, beat him up, threw him into a pit and set fire to him. That is probably grossly disproportionate, and the individual concerned would not, I suspect, find a defence under the Bill.