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Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill

I will come to that in a moment. Current practitioners in the House at the moment have far more experience than my zero experience of handling cases of this kind. My understanding is that, where applications are being made, the judge has to be satisfied that there is a reason for withholding what would otherwise be fundamental evidence from the defence—for example, the witness's identity and aspects of the witness's background that could lead to his identity. The court has to be satisfied as to the reasons. That may well be police intelligence reports, and indeed Government amendments Nos. 40 and 41 allow for that possibility. I will come to the issue of the special counsel in a moment. Next, and penultimately, I shall deal with amendment No. 20, which would allow, where there is a defence application, for an order to be made for the witness's real identity to be given to the court but not to the prosecutor. The argument is that there has to be equality of arms between prosecution and defence. It is a straightforward truth in any system of justice worthy of its name that there has to be such equality, but a moment's thought will explain to us that equality of arms does not mean complete symmetry between the role and predicament of the defendant and the role and predicament, if any, of the prosecutor. The vested interests are completely different. It is the defendant who is in the dock. The prosecutor is not in the dock. There is not an either-way verdict which will lead to either the defendant or the prosecutor going to jail. As soon as one points that out—if I may say so, it is a statement of the blindingly obvious, but—