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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The hon. Gentleman puts it correctly. Most of those who are liable to be accused of blasphemy have the least ability to know what the tenets that they are supposed to be offending against are. There are further problems with this offence; it creates real problems. Although it has not been used for a long time, it has a chilling effect. There can be a reluctance among some theatre directors, publishers or press people to print material that might be alleged to be blasphemous, because there is a criminal offence. There is another chilling effect. The existence of such offences catalyses attempts at private prosecution. For example, the extreme Christian Voice group sought to bring such a prosecution against the BBC. That cost hundreds of thousands of pounds for the BBC to defend, money that I at least—I do not say this in the hope of a good write-up—believe would be better spent on salaries for journalists.