Terrorism Act 2006 (Disapplication of Section 25) Order 2009

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing the order. At least this year we are debating it without any other confusion, such as the proposition to extend detention to 42 days. We now see that that proposition, which we on these Benches strongly resisted, was absolutely unnecessary. I am sure that even the Minister and the Government can accept just how unnecessary it was. Today we consider whether we should simply renew the 28-day detention with barely a murmur or a question. Every time we consider these special and extraordinary provisions, we must be clear that the goal is to return to what we all accepted as normal pre-9/11: that no one could be held without charge for longer than four days. I want to highlight how different things are now. It is important to remember that we are at seven times the normal limit. I will not dwell on some of the other details that we have rehearsed many times in your Lordships’ House. The Minister touched on a few of them, including the issue of the suspect’s access to a lawyer and what that lawyer may address. I am sure that my noble friends may touch on those issues. I should like to emphasise the importance of the steps that we make to return to normalcy. I ask the Minister to prove today that reverting to 14 days pre-detention as laid down in the Terrorism Act 2006 is neither desirable nor even it seems the goal that the Government seek to attain. The Minister said himself that, in the past 24 months, neither 28 days pre-detention nor anything like it has been used. In fact, the statistics in the independent assessor’s report bear out the fact that a return to 14 days is a practical proposition. I should like to question the reasoning that the Minister laid out for the 28 day maximum. The Government should provide the evidence to back up the assertions because the statistical evidence is pointing the other way. I will take the Minister’s assertions one by one. He says that there is an increasingly complex nature of terrorist networks. He would accept the strategy—because he, with his department, wrote it—that vastly increased resources are going into counterterrorism. At the time he published the strategy the figure was £2.5 billion, rising to £3.5 billion in 2011—and a Security Service personnel that has doubled in size. The Government impressed upon us that they had a new strategy and better targeting when they launched that strategy in March this year. So, while the terrorist networks may be more complex, the tools that the Government have are increasingly more substantial. The Minister mentioned the increasingly international nature of terrorist networks, meaning greater language difficulties and a greater need to gather evidence from aboard. I am sure that the Government maintain a good network of interpreters and translators. That is never going to be a sound reason for having such a departure from our normal rules of law and justice. I am not sure whether the Minister mentioned in the Explanatory Notes the difficulty of entering premises to search for evidence where it is suspected that chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear material may be present. Legislation allows access to premises. The technological challenges, if they are that severe, are not likely to disappear on day 28. The Minister mentioned the need to intervene early in some terrorist investigations due to the public safety consequences of a successful terrorist attack. We had an example of that this year with the arrests in the north-east after Bob Quick inadvertently let slip information about the operation when his papers were photographed. The people were arrested early and released without charge well before 14 days. Then there is the question of the encryption of computers. As the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, mentioned some time ago, when we were debating 42 days, that is an issue of getting more computer experts to bear on the problem. Again, it is not a sound argument. It was very useful that the Joint Committee on Human Rights published its report today at five o’clock. We have the benefit of its views. The Joint Committee believes that it is impossible for it, or for Parliament in general, to assess whether the 28-day limit is necessary without a proper independent investigation of whether those who have been held for more than 24 days could have been released or charged earlier. That has been mentioned to the Government before. Although the report on the operation of the Terrorism Act was published in June this year, and although it contains useful statistics, it does not contain any sort of qualitative assessment to give us an indication of what we are dealing with. This suggests that the Government do not intend to move away from 28 days at any time in the near future or, indeed, ever. Liberal Democrats are deeply unhappy at this rubber stamp renewal. We were equally unhappy with the automatic renewal of control orders, in respect of which the Government’s approach was found wanting by the Law Lords. If the Government pursue this order today, we believe it will mean that exceptional legislation stays on the statute book year after year. Doubtless the terrorist threat will not go away for a generation. I am not underplaying the serious nature of that threat. However, given the Government’s approach, we are looking at keeping 28 day detention for a generation. We do not accept that is a desirable position. We urge the Government to develop their thinking and to return with a plan, and the actions necessary, to move us back to at least 14 days before this provision is renewed again. I beg to move.