---

Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, an old expression states that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. In this case, I suspect that miscarriages of justice could happen, which would arise because people are not properly trained. By miscarriages of justice I mean that the guilty go free and the innocent go to prison. If somebody is not properly trained or regulated, that is more likely to happen than with a proper barrister. That is always possible, as we know of cases where that has happened and should not have done. I suggest that this will happen exactly if that lower standard of people is allowed to prosecute without any regulation or training. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas, read out how much training they have to have; frankly, it is practically less than that for driving a pony in an amateur dressage test. What is required is tiny, and that is not good enough.