I'll be brief, but I thank Mr. Cooper for bringing this forward. Obviously it was helpful that it came out of a unanimous report by this committee.
Mr. Farrant, thank you so much for all the advocacy you've done on juror supports. We really appreciate at our committee the advocacy you've done, which has resulted in this bill being here today, and also understanding that there's more work to do.
I'll just go for a moment to something specific coming out of Mr. Cooper's comments that I think is important. That is, there are reasons that the juror secrecy rule is in place. This provides a narrow exception for someone to speak to a mental health professional if need be, and that mental health professional is then duty-bound by their professional code of conduct and confidentiality. It preserves the integrity of any discussions that happen in a jury room when they're in deliberations, and ensuring full and frank discussions so that nobody can worry about potential further consequences or criticisms of anything they may say.
Mr. Farrant, just from your point of view, in all the work you've done in advocating for various things that have to do with juror supports, do you think the exception as written with regard to health care professionals will do enough to ensure the confidentiality of those discussions?