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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I do not think that I have been so depressed for a long time as when I heard the noble Lord say how essential hearsay evidence is. As has been said, we could get hearsay evidence that somebody was having a punch-up in a pub. Twenty years ago that person had a rather unpleasant conviction which was time-expired. He cannot cross-examine the witnesses and he can be restricted. If that is not a punishment, I do not know what is. The Government may call it a civil procedure but it is not. It is a civil procedure used to impose punishment. There is no way around this; any restriction on liberty is punishment. If someone says that you cannot go from A to B, or that you have to stay in your house, that is a punishment. It is just the same punishment as saying to a child that they have to go to the naughty box or naughty corner, or whatever the fashionable thing is now.