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Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

We are dealing with extortion and those other serious crimes through the Organised Crime Task Force. The hon. Gentleman is right that especially in relation to organised crime, that is still an issue. There have been only—one might say only—six cases of known jury intimidation in the past five years and he and I know well that that figure could be significantly higher. That is why there is the option of a juryless trial after a recommendation by the Director of Public Prosecutions, acting perhaps on intelligence or other information provided by the police or the security service, for example. After the Bill receives Royal Assent, the DPP can go to a judge and say, ““The norm of a jury trial should be suspended in this case and provision should be made for one without a jury.””