Victims of Overseas Terrorism Bill [HL]

My Lords, the Minister’s closing words were that we are dealing with an issue that needs urgent action, and I welcome them. I agree. It would be most unwise of the Government, the leaders of other political parties and civil servants to assume that the people can be ignored on this issue because it is too complicated. We do not expect that kind of longer term debate about something that needs an urgent solution. I shall make four short points. First, I talked about compensation, but it would be infelicitous to treat that as synonymous with economic harm. I am talking about people who are killed, who have their arms shredded or who lose their eyes. They have to pay for their medical expenses, their rent and their families. That is what I mean by compensation, not something that so many in the country deride, but the simple means of keeping a family on its feet. Secondly, I am gratified that the issues that have been raised as creating difficulties were entirely predictable and, in my view, entirely soluble. The question is the intent, not the capacity to overcome detail. Thirdly, there is the question of cost. I, and those working with me, sought to produce a cost. Those who oppose my cost can produce their own, and we can examine it. Nobody has yet done so. I shall make two points about the insurance industry. If there are 10 million holidays to countries that do not have systems of compensation that we can call upon and we say that the average premium is£15 or £20, that is touching £100 million for the two-thirds of the 10 million who might take out a policy. Out of that £100 million, our Government takes 17.5 per cent insurance premium tax, which is £17.5 million. They are acutely aware of the value of the travel insurance market. There are six national insurance firms providing cover, and they must be doing so on the basis that it is economic, it covers the risk and there is a reasonable premium to be charged. So this is a case not of insoluble complexities but of a meeting—I am happy to propose one—between the insurers, the Government, the British Insurance Brokers Association and all interested parties in order to come up with a solution. My last point is that if an American, an Australian, a Frenchman, an Italian, a Finn, a Swede or an Israeli was sitting in the Public Gallery, he would say to himself, ““My Government provide me with this, either through insurance or through government schemes. Why doesn’t it happen in the United Kingdom?””. Are our complexities different from theirs? I think not. It is time for action. The Bill will pursue it, and I invite your Lordships to give it a Second Reading. On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.