The bill is drafted in a peculiar manner in the sense that it directs police not to charge, which is not something that we would typically do in terms of, certainly not in terms of criminal legislation.
We would suggest rather, if we were drafting it—if this were a government bill—that the person who meets the criteria here is not guilty of committing an offence rather than say that the police shall not charge. There are two reasons. One is, that is not the way we typically draft legislation. Two, we try to impose or restrict police discretion as little as possible.
One of the concerns that this particular provision poses for police is if they do charge by accident, but they do charge, does that make them liable? Are they civilly liable for having laid the charge on the individual who meets the criteria set out here?
As I say, we would have approached it a little differently.