Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I am grateful to the Minister that he considered the matter and consulted the drafting counsel on this. As a matter of general principle, it is preferable to have more accessible and concise language in criminal legislation. There is a huge amount of unwieldy language and an unnecessary number of different Acts on the Statute Book. A consolidation project is underway but here we are trying to contribute to making the language of criminal law and legislation more accessible and understandable. It is a pity that a matter of drafting technique should prevent us from using shorter terms. Perhaps the Minister will take the general point on board.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.