Member

I hope your Lordships will bear with me for a minute or two while I give a little bit of detail about why we feel so strongly about this. Discontinuance of proceedings up to trial happens in the magistrates’ court, where the cases are less serious and the length of time until trial is usually shorter than in the Crown Court. But this proposal seeks to extend this power to the Crown Court for all cases, which would include terrorism, rape and even murder. The significance of this is that discontinuing a case is not pressing the pause button; it brings the case to a complete halt, but with no conclusive result.