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Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill

The starting point would be a hearing before the judge, as happens now. Government amendment No. 41 proposes an initial ex parte application followed by an inter partes hearing, and the independent counsel would play a role in both aspects. I do not think that we can achieve perfection, but that is probably the way forward. It may be possible to test some of the evidence on paper initially, but it may ultimately be necessary to have the witness at least on an ex parte basis. That would depend on what the system throws up: we are talking about a relatively small number of cases, and I do not think that what I propose would be unmanageable.