---

Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I was taken slightly out of context there. The evidence will not just be gossip. I have said on a number of occasions—about seven, in fact; I wrote it down—that this will be to do with probation services, prison services and local government as well as all these other things. That is the basis on which the magistrates will take decisions. Perhaps this shows my simplicity, but I believe that if a magistrate were presented with mere gossip, he would jolly well say, ““I’m bloody well not going to do this””. That would be my reaction if some defaulter came up before me, and I think they have enough common sense to do that. As I have said, this is not the tidiest or nicest measure, but it is an additional arrow in our quiver that will help make the public safer and reassure them. There are a large number of people out there who are frightened of violent offences, even though we have reduced such offences dramatically, and therefore it is important to do this.