The problem with a list, and whether it is to be added to, has been illustrated by the fact that the Bill left the House of Lords with a number of rebuttable presumptions set out in clause 76 and that a further one has since been added. That raises the question whether the list is intended to be exhaustive.

It is always dangerous to leave a list of circumstances when there is a possibility that something else could be added. Plainly the list, in the very good Bill that left their lordships' House, was not exhaustive because in the last hours or days the Government have thought of yet another item to add to it.

The Minister will have to accept that sometimes there are difficulties with lists. The chairman of the Criminal Bar Association said to the Home Affairs Committee that the list was legislative overkill; the question was whether such a list was necessary. He referred to what is essential in a rape case: a crystal-clear, easily understood summing-up to a jury rather than something that goes through a series of rebuttable presumptions. Most of the juries that I have been involved with would have difficulty in understanding the phrase ''a rebuttable presumption''. It would be very difficult properly to address a jury on such matters. Certainly Peter Rook, before the Home Affairs Committee, had his doubts about such a list.