Member

I happen to think—and I think there is a common theme on many sides of this Chamber—that the courts are well equipped to assess whether someone had a legitimate reason for their actions. In practice, the burden on the defendant is only to raise an evidential basis for the excuse; it is then for the prosecution to disprove it. That is what prosecutions are about: they face defences, they have to prove that those defences are wrong, and they have to prove their case.