Coroners and Justice Bill

The right hon. and learned Gentleman and I are clearly not going to agree on the issue, and unfortunately the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) and I are not going to agree either—whether it is on sets of circumstances, sexual infidelity or drunken owls. In the remaining time, I want to deal with some of the other points. The hon. Member for Cambridge referred to the issue of whether sexual infidelity is a thing done, a thing said or both. We have used the words "done" or "said" in the provision, to the effect that the fact that a thing done or said constituted sexual infidelity is to be disregarded. By doing so, we are making it clear that the subsection relates back to the earlier subsection, which refers to""things done or said…which…constituted circumstances of an extremely grave character, and caused"—" the defendant—""to have a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged."" Although it might be difficult to understand how "things said" would of themselves amount to sexual infidelity—I understand the point that the hon. Member for Cambridge is making—if we were to remove that term we could leave a loophole that might be exploited in the future. For clarity, and to ensure that the provision is seamless, the provision refers to the words in the original subsection—"things said or done."