---

Terrorism Bill

It is a narrow line and might cause a number of people to say that we should not have a subjective but an objective test. A subjective test is much more difficult to satisfy than an objective test, which would enable one to consider what a reasonable person in that situation would have foreseen. It is always possible, once one has a subjective test, to say that a reasonable person may have seen this as a foreseeable consequence, but individual X did not. Therefore, it is much more difficult to prove that they did. That issue has troubled us greatly—it troubled us in the other place and it troubles us now—in terms of whether it would be possible to prove this offence in a way that would give the offence teeth. The noble and learned Lord is right to point out that a subjective test will make the offence more difficult to prove that that is the express intent of many, and we have accepted that that should be the position.