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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

On this point, it is not so much the preparation that would worry me as what could go wrong in court. The noble and learned Baroness and I, and others in this House who have been lawyers and have practised in different courts, including the magistrates’ court, know that the way a case is presented is not the way the case goes, and things go wrong. It is in the tricky, non-custodial type of case, but which will be of importance to the defendant, that something can go badly wrong. Two things worry me. First, at that moment there is not be a single lawyer in court, as the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mayhew of Twysden, have pointed out. Secondly, if it goes wrong, will the line manager understand or will the Crown prosecution non-legally trained employee really go partly wrong because he is afraid of what will be said back in the office? Not being a lawyer, he will not have had that independence of training.