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Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill

My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg) touched on the point that I want to raise. I do not see how the Bill cannot raise general issues of principle. If any trial overruns its estimated time or date—I am afraid that that happens; there are a number of major criminal trials that are nothing to do with fraud that have done so—that will place burdens on the jury. The argument that the Solicitor-General is putting forward could equally well be advanced for those trials. That is why it makes me anxious that that is the point on which the Government seem to have latched. If it is the Government’s position that any burden on jurors is unacceptable because it may be disruptive to their lives, the whole jury system is going to collapse.