Member

Finally, I take the opportunity that today offers to raise the issue of the test that applicants must pass to qualify for compensation at all. As the Minister said, they are, after all, victims of the state. It is not enough that their conviction has been quashed, particularly when they have spent many years in prison, with the loss of their liberty, their family and their reputation—everything. Yet, having had their convictions quashed on the grounds of a miscarriage at the trial itself, they are required to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were innocent. But if the original trial had been fair, it goes without saying that they would have been acquitted and not imprisoned, because the Crown would have failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were guilty. So, at present, someone who should not have been in prison at all has then to prove that they are innocent by applying a test and standard that is the opposite to that which would have applied if the trial had not been a miscarriage. I invite the Minister to say something about what the Government will do to remedy this lamentable state of affairs.