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Coroners and Justice Bill

What I shall say in a moment will express the Government’s position on that point. I had allowed for the fact that if there is a tax on speech, that may indicate, in part, some limitation on freedom. The noble Lord, Lord Lester, went on to cover the issue about the criteria, as used in the Guardian letter. In particular I think he was alighting on, and the Guardian letter alights on, the final criteria which is in Clause 145(3)(f). It is very important in my view to look at Clause 145(2) and (3) because they detail the breadth of considerations to which a court has to have regard. Paragraph (f) is but one of those considerations. The essence of the Guardian letter seems to be that we should have consulted more. We disagree. The consultation paper, Making Sure that Crime Doesn’t Pay, was published jointly by the Home Office, the Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Office in November 2006. The consultation ran for three months until 9 February 2007. It was published on the Home Office, Scottish Executive and Northern Ireland Office websites where readers could post comments. It was also sent directly to a number of organisations that were thought likely to have a specific interest in this issue. The full list of organisations we have consulted is set out in Appendix 1 on page 31 of the consultation document. Around 60 organisations in England and Wales, around 70 in Scotland and around 30 in Northern Ireland were sent a copy of the consultation paper. The Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prison Reform Trust were included in the mailing list. Inside Time magazine and English PEN were not sent copies but a number of publishing and newspaper groups were. It was open for anyone to view the consultation document on the website. Our response to the consultation was published in December 2008 and we received a total of 24 responses. Responses were received from victims’ groups, broadcasters, press and publishing organisations, members of the judiciary, police groups and members of the public. We therefore do not accept that the consultation exercise was too narrow. Turning to the freedom of speech point—