Meeting of the Parliament 08 December 2015
I recognise Christian Allard’s particular interest in the matter. It is not the first time that he has expressed concern about the removal of the corroboration provisions from the bill. However, I will set out the Government’s intention, which I hope will give him some confidence in our continued commitment in that area.
I again thank Lord Bonomy. We are continuing to consider his recommendations alongside other relevant reforms. The bill already includes a number of his recommendations: it places the prosecutorial test on a statutory footing and it requires codes of conduct to be issued to the police on the interviewing and identification of suspects. My initial view was that the latter provisions would be better considered as part of the wider consideration of Lord Bonomy’s review, but I have been persuaded in the interim that the addition of that requirement to the bill is helpful, and I thank Alison McInnes for lodging her amendment on that at stage 2.
Before I move on, I wish to make some further comments on the reform of corroboration. Although it was not possible to build a general consensus for the abolition of the corroboration rule at this time, I still consider that concerns about that rule—and, in particular, the very detrimental effect that it can have on people when the crime is committed in private—remain. On this day, we should not forget about the victims who have been affected by that legal requirement.