Serious Crime Bill [HL]

The difficulty is that in Clause 41, the specific offence with which D may be convicted of assisting or encouraging will often not be known until the end of the trial. Therefore, the mode of the trial for the offences would not have been determined. The whole process would therefore be dependent on it being clear that they were all summary at the beginning. That will not necessarily be the case. I see what the noble Lord means if it were the case, but I suggest that the evidential basis and proof of Clause 41 offences are quite difficult to establish. The possible complexity and difficulty of the Clause 41 type of offence means that it would be better heard in the Crown Court with a jury than summarily. It is, if you like, the third tier of offences, but one could reasonably anticipate that the category of cases falling into it are likely to be the more complex of the three tiers. The confusion which I see that causes the noble Lord, Lord Henley, confirms my view.