Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I start by saying that we are perfectly happy with the government amendments in the group, which abolish sedition and seditious, defamatory and obscene libel as common-law offences. These arcane offences are no longer relevant to our criminal system, and we accept the amendments. We are less happy about Amendment 75A, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lester, which relates to blasphemy and blasphemous libel in Northern Ireland. I agree with him that they too are arcane and redundant, and I was grateful to him for pointing out that there have been no prosecutions for these offences since the 19th century. However, as a spokesman for the Conservative and Unionist Party, I say that this matter should be left for devolution. We support devolution, and the matter can be discussed in due course by the Stormont Assembly when it has the appropriate authority. Having said that, and in the light of what the noble Lord, Lord Lester, said about there having been no prosecutions since the 19th century, it will make no difference to man nor beast whether his amendment is passed or not. It is unlikely that we will see a flood of prosecutions under the existing law, or if we change it. Though we are happy—