Police and Justice Bill

I thank the Minister for her full reply. I shall give it the detailed attention that it so richly deserves. I also thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer of Sandwell, and the noble Lords, Lord Dholakia and Lord Judd, for their support, and thank Liberty, the organisation that has been working on this amendment for some months. I would welcome a discussion on this matter. Many of the Minister’s suggestions are interesting, particularly the idea that there should be more international engagement and discussion long before flights take place. That is a valuable suggestion, which I would like to explore further. The question of there being insufficient evidence that extraordinary rendition is taking place using the UK’s facilities is tricky. For the moment, I shall not talk about the actual mechanisms of trying to redress that. On the question of evidence, I would think that it is not possible to prove that these flights have not taken place. For that reason, it seems logical to try to put together some kind of mechanism in the Bill, or amending other Acts, to ensure that that is impossible in future. Surely it must be possible to devise a workable mechanism that allows aircraft that are already on the ground and which are using refuelling facilities to be searched. I know that it is late. The war on terror is incredibly important and we are very lucky to be NGOs and not Government, because we have the luxury of not having to make very difficult decisions. But I still stress that the war on terror does not operate in a vacuum and we cannot be seen to be contracting out of any of the conventions that govern human rights, in particular the UN Convention Against Torture, because that is an absolute prohibition. However, I very much welcome the offer of a meeting with the Minister and her suggestions, which I shall consider. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 11 [Supply of information to police etc by Registrar General]: