Coroners and Justice Bill

At Second Reading, I reserved the position of these Benches in order to see whether the clauses were justified. Since Second Reading, I have done my own research, and we have heard some very powerful speeches today about why the clauses are not justified or necessary and why they will have not only the chilling effect on free speech that we heard about from the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, supported by quotations from the Publishers Association and others, but also the chilling effect on the rehabilitative possibilities mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern. When the reasons are combined there is no doubt that the Government cannot justify including the clauses in the Bill. Since Second Reading, there have been interesting examples of things that might have been caught by the Bill. I will give one example, which took place between 23 and 27 June 2009. I refer to the Freedom Project from the Only Connect theatre company. The actors are ex-prisoners who are paid—not much, but roughly Equity rates. They develop a short play about the lives that they lead. It may surprise noble Lords that the Daily Mail went along to the same project that was put on last year—I am not aware of this year’s review—and gave it a glowing review. The paper clearly saw it as a very worthwhile venture. The clauses, as other noble Lords have pointed out, refer to any material. The fact that they are headed "Criminal memoirs etc" does not mean that these plays—or even art—would not have been caught. Almost anything within the sphere of the arts could be caught. The statistics on education in prison are disheartening. The Minister himself has often pointed to the fact that the education of prisoners is a key objective. Therefore, I impress upon him the quotation from Tim Robertson, chief executive of the Koestler Trust, who does work in this area that is of particular value to prisoners. He says, in Brain Cells: Listening to Prisoner Learners, that, ""for me the most heartening figure in this report (though of course I’d like it to be even higher) is that 64% of respondents have access to arts facilities. Because the arts—along with many academic subjects—are exploratory. The arts recognise human complexity, and encourage a creative and carefully shaped response. And I believe this is a form of learning which—much more than the acquisition of facts and skills—will equip prisoners for the wide-ranging, ever-changing social and economic demands of our own hard times"." As this comes from somebody with his understanding, and given also the very powerful speeches this afternoon from noble Lords who know so much about the issues, I hope that the Minister will think again about the clauses and withdraw them from the Bill.