Member

Government amendments 29 to 31 to clause 8 clarify where the court can exclude sexual behaviour evidence that would require significant satellite litigation to be relied on. This essentially follows the Law Commission’s recommendation that the extent to which the evidence will distract the factfinder from the main issues in the case is relevant to the evidence’s admissibility. Government amendment 32 to clause 10 makes it clear that a victim’s failure to report a previous allegation of a sexual offence cannot by itself provide a basis for suggesting in court that the allegation was false; there must be additional evidence capable of supporting such an assertion.