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Protection of Freedoms Bill

I take all issues of crime and the victims of crime extremely seriously, and so must this House. I would not distinguish between them in that way. I move on to the question of a six-year limit versus a three-year limit. The Opposition have decided to lay the accusation that their choice of six years is based on secure evidence, but one of their pieces of so-called statistical evidence was based on an extremely small sample that was carried out by the Jill Dando Institute for Crime Science. Its director later noted, in September 2009, that that research study"““was probably a mistake with hindsight, we should have just said 'you might as well just stick your finger in the air and think of a number'””."