---

Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill

I am afraid that we reject this amendment. We think it would change the basis on which the Court of Appeal, day by day, looks at appeals against criminal convictions, and that there is no justification for doing so here. The test for the Court of Appeal, as I think was said earlier, is whether a conviction is unsafe. Obviously, if a trial has been unfair, it follows that the conviction will be unsafe. Here the law will allow that if, under the statutory powers that the Bill will give, the defendant who was convicted under the common law has received a fair trial where a witness has been allowed to give anonymous evidence, that conviction should be upheld. If, however, the defendant did not come within the statutory test that is clearly set out in the Bill, his trial will have been unfair because an anonymous witness should not have been allowed to give evidence. We think that it is as simple as that. To put in here the possibility of a real probability that a defendant may not have received a fair trial seems to us to go too far. We do not see an argument in favour of requiring the Court of Appeal to consider whether the appellant may not have received a fair trial. The issue is: did he receive a fair trial as provided for by the Bill that we hope will be passed tonight? We believe that the appeal court will be in a position to assess whether in its opinion the decision taken by the trial court in making the pre-commencement anonymity order was in all the circumstances fair and afforded that defendant a fair trial. If it concludes that the defendant did not receive a fair trial, then, again, the conviction is unsafe and has to be quashed. It is for those quite simple reasons, which cover matters of broad principle, that we object to the amendment and ask the noble Viscount to withdraw it.