Baroness Chakrabarti (Lab)

My Lords, I can be short on this important group, because of the detailed scrutiny and cross-party support that I enjoyed in Committee, because of my eminent co-signatories and because Report stage discipline is a courtesy to all noble Lords hoping to do their voting duty and get home at a reasonable time. This group concerns two dangerous evidential practices that have already led to significant miscarriages of justice. Amendment 21 addresses computer evidence too easily presumed reliable without appropriate testing or proof—I give you the Horizon scandal and the postmasters. Amendment 22 addresses the pernicious and discriminatory police and prosecution practice of admitting evidence of people’s musical tastes. Young black men’s liking for rap and drill music, in particular, are somehow probative of criminal proclivity and intent, especially in joint enterprise cases—I give you Ademola Adadeji, the young, promising law scholar sent to prison in a case of total mistaken identity, a conviction overturned only after he served three years of his young life. My noble friend Lady Lawrence of Clarendon explained that case in Committee. This practice is exacerbated by police officers holding themselves out as expert witnesses in rap and drill music. I shall say no more. I am so grateful to my noble friend the Minister for her repeated and expert engagement with these concerns. I look forward hopefully to her response and I beg to move.