Serious Crime Bill [Lords]

I was trying to use good, old-fashioned language so as not to upset the Under-Secretary too much, but the hon. Gentleman may be right. The Government are the most authoritarian Administration that Britain has ever had. No historian would question that. The hon. Member for Taunton hinted at the importance of the right that we are considering. If we and the Under-Secretary are confused, the innocent person who will inevitably be caught by the measure—I have some interest in that problem—will also be confused. At no point in the process will he or she know the protections that they have, the standard of proof that has to be produced and where the measure stands between the civil and criminal standards of proof. At different times, requirements have moved elegantly between the standards, from ““virtually the same”” to completely different. The required standard is likely to be informed by the decision in the McCann case. Having been a Minister for several years, I know some of the language that civil servants pass to Ministers. The phrase, ““is likely to inform”” is well known to mean, ““I am saying nothing whatsoever, but I want you to take it from me.”” It does not mean anything. ““Inform”” merely means that somebody, in making a decision, either takes the information into account or knows about it in order not to take it into account. It has no genuine meaning. My problem is that the freedom of the individual is too important to rely either on the direct and clear word of a Minister without being in the Bill or—even worse—on the unclear, indirect, confusing and contradictory words of a series of Ministers. I therefore hope that hon. Members, small though the attendance is for such an important subject—all parties should bear the blame for that—will not allow the Under-Secretary to get away with officialese to cover up the fundamental threat that the measure poses to the freedom of the individual. The Under-Secretary will get away with it because the people whom we are considering are generally rather nasty. Some are very nasty. We therefore forget that soon, at some point, somebody who is not nasty will be caught up in the provisions. The vagueness means that great injustice can be done. The House is here above all to protect people from injustice. The phraseology that we are considering does not do it. I therefore commend to hon. Members the various amendments, which would at least tighten the measure sufficiently for us to believe that we have done our historic duty in defending individuals against an authoritarian Government, whose authoritarianism is unparalleled since the days of the absolute power of the Crown.