The Home Secretary believes that the most fundamental reconsideration for 50 years of legislation covering murder should also review the issues surrounding the rights of the burglar compared with the householder.

The move to let the review examine the issue comes on the eve of the publication today of Conservative proposals to give greater rights to householders when their homes are burgled.

Ministers have been forced on to the defensive after the call by Sir John Stevens, the retiring Metropolitan Police Commissioner, for the law to be strengthened in favour of homeowners.

Yesterday Sir John won support from other senior police officers, who joined his call for the law to be strengthened. Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Cheshire, said: “I support the comments made by Sir John Stevens. There needs to be a better definition of what constitutes ‘reasonable force’ [when defending property], and the public clearly feel that the law as it currently stands is unclear.”

He outlined some of the complexities involved in any proposal to change existing law. He said: “There also needs to be a clear definition of what constitutes an intruder; how would that presumption, for example, apply to police officers?”

David Swift, Deputy Chief Constable of Staffordshire, said that there should be a presumption in favour of the householder, particularly as it was easy for burglars to make allegations that excessive force is used upon them.

He said: “A presumption that those who used force against intruders in their own homes were within the law, unless the facts clearly disproved it, would avoid most investigations against burglary victims.”

With the Conservatives bringing forward their own proposals and a Conservative backbencher promising a Private Member’s Bill, the proposal to allow the murder review to look at the issue is an attempt to show that the Government is responding to a populist issue while delaying taking immediate action.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman conceded that the existing law needed to be clarified and that the murder review team would look at the issue. “The important thing is that the law does allow reasonable force to be used. What it does not allow is the act of retaliation.”

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, the Lord Chancellor, said that the Government would not back a Bill by Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP, to strengthen the law to stop people being prosecuted for defending their homes.

Under Mr Mercer’s proposal, householders would be investigated by police only if they used “grossly disproportionate force”. Under the plans, no prosecution could be brought against such a person without the leave of the AttorneyGeneral.

The Government believes that any changes in such a complex area should be made in primary legislation rather than through a Private Member’s Bill. Lord Falconer said that rather than change the law, people should be made more aware of their rights.

• New measures to reduce the stress for children and victims of domestic violence of giving evidence in court were outlined yesterday (Frances Gibb writes).

  Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, the Lord Chancellor, who was announcing the Department for Constitutional Affairs’ five-year plan, pledged to increase the number of video links to cover 75 per cent of magistrates’ courts; 89 per cent of locations in which the Crown Court sits are covered already. The links will be used to protect vulnerable witnesses, including those giving evidence in antisocial behaviour cases.

  He was visiting Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court in southwest London, where technology allows vulnerable witnesses and victims to avoid having to give evidence in the courtroom.

  The move coincides with a visit today by Harriet Harman, the Solicitor-General, to a new specialist domestic violence court in Croydon, South London, where she will see the use of new laws by prosecutors to encourage victims of domestic violence to come to court to give evidence.

Explore UK News

• Science News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Postman Pat moved to a high-tech sorting office
• Saatchi’s old favourites
• New teaching style gives pupils wake-up call