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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, it is very important that all of us keep our eye on the main point of this amendment. I feel very strongly that the noble Lords, Lord Alli and Lord Lester, have made far too much play of the undoubted truth that should a case of this kind come before the courts, it would not succeed. The amendment of my noble friend Lord Waddington seeks to address the situation where anyone from anywhere for any reason can make an allegation against someone that they have made a statement. Although that allegation might not stand up in the courts, if the police have an allegation or an accusation of that kind to deal with, they may go for it tooth and nail, as rightly they should. The people would be out of their houses, and they would be interviewed and thoroughly questioned. For the many people whose crime did not exist, but who, as I pointed out the other day, had tried only to get people to go to a church service, it was wrong that they should have been interviewed by the police and made to feel like criminals.