At the present time when anyone is charged and has to appear before a court, no previous convictions are allowed to be mentioned until they are convicted of the crime they are being tried for on that day. The current position is that the prosecution has to use evidence from that case alone to convince a jury that the person is guilty. The Government is now proposing to remove that basic protection and to allow juries to hear about and be influenced by previous convictions and not current facts. This undermines the basic principle of British Justice that a person is innocent until proved guilty.