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Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill

The hon. Gentleman is of course absolutely correct to say that, arithmetically, the majority of cases cannot constitute an exception to the rule. However, other aspects of the existing procedure need to be corrected, such as the idea that applications for witness anonymity orders can be made purely on paper, without any opportunity to question whether the case has been made out of necessity. Judges are often told that either they grant the order or the case will collapse on the spot, so they are coerced into granting orders or put in a position whereby the case itself does not succeed. That is not good enough, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the House of Lords for pointing it out and making us go back to first principles in respect of hearing the other side as a standard of justice. There is a very important passage at paragraph 79 of the judgment, in which Lord Mance discusses what the Equality and Human Rights Commission said about such circumstances. He says that the standard is a proper verification process, so that the anonymity order is tested between both sides and the court can come to a conclusion about what to do on the basis of argument, not assertion.