Lady Hale’s judgment in Yemshaw v London Borough of Hounslow [2011] UKSC 3 set out to update the meaning of ‘domestic violence’, leading to the criticism from Professor Ekins and others that amending a statute by ‘judicial fiat’ thwarts the legislature’s intention.  The Supreme Court could have invoked Hansard to reach the same result. Donald Drakeman will argue that, despite the continuing controversy surrounding Pepper v Hart, the use of legislative history may be preferable to judicially updating statutory meaning, especially when the text was adopted just a few years before.