---

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

May I suggest to the Minister that legislating is not all about giving out signals and that it is about making law? I have no axe to grind personally with the Minister, who is a perfectly decent man and who engaged with us in Committee on many matters, above and beyond his brief. However, he may have wished to circulate a photocopy of the Crown Prosecution Service guidance on self-defence and the prevention of crime. Any fool can read and understand it, as it says simply, under the heading of ““Reasonable Force””:"““A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances for the purposes of: self-defence; or defence of another; or defence of property””." It goes on to describe a further two matters. Providing a copy of that would have done, rather than using legislative time.