Prevention of Terrorism Act

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his approach and the stance that he has adopted. As I said in my statement, in principle I accept each of Lord Carlile’s recommendations to which he referred—on Home Office procedures, deportation processes and so on. I am required—and wish—to consult with the Intelligence Services Commission and the director general of the security service, but I hope that not too many weeks pass before we debate the renewal order. I shall then set out to the House my detailed and final decision, following that consultation, on Lord Carlile’s recommendations. I very much welcome the constructive approach adopted by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael) in respect of the timetable for the new Bill. I can tell the House that his predecessor in the post took the same approach. I shall look at what the hon. Gentleman said about the indicative timetable, but I am determined that the new Bill takes full account of all the pieces of work to which I referred. The timetable will therefore not be based on indolence on the part of Parliament or the House, but on the fact that proper account must be taken of how the regime has worked, the comments that are made about it, and other specific pieces of work that must be developed. The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland mentioned revisiting issues. Parliament has a tradition of doing that in a variety of ways. I cannot guarantee that no issues will be revisited, by me or another Labour Member. I am not sure that I can ask him for a guarantee that his party will not revisit any issues—I am thinking about its opposition to the existence of control orders in the first place—but a commitment in that regard from him could very much aid consensual progress.