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Human Rights

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who is a valuable member of my Committee. He raises a serious issue. I was disappointed by the Government's subsequent response when we reiterated our recommendations on that. I do not think that they have got to grips with how serious an impediment to protest the use of civil injunctions is. I had much experience of such injunctions for industrial disputes when I was in practice, and it is difficult to see why the process available for industrial disputes, which is a special process for injunctions that requires that they are obtained on notice to the trade unions concerned, could not also be applied when dealing with a question of protest. The Government response states that it is difficult to identify who is a protester and who is not because that is not actually defined in law, but I think that the courts are able to draw a clear distinction between what is and is not a protest. Moreover, it is in the court's discretion to refuse an injunction applied for ex parte inappropriately. As in this case, it is hard to see in what circumstances there would be any great urgency about an injunction being granted.