Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I very much support all of these amendments. As a judge I have tried a number of cases involving vulnerable adults and children who were being cared for outside NHS premises, and in several of these cases the family and friends had behaved appallingly. I remember one case in which a man who had had a dreadful accident was being treated on private premises. He was in a coma and his wife was attending every day. His family decided that this would not do. Their behaviour towards this private clinic—paid for by the NHS, but not an NHS building—was such that the clinic came in desperation to the High Court for an injunction providing that the family could visit for only two hours every other day. This was not an unusual circumstance. I welcome the Government’s proposal in Clause 170 but, having appreciated the importance of this protection, they should carry it one or several stages further.