Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Bill

I am conscious of the time and the fact that we have to get on to new clause 1, on relocation, ahead of Third Reading, so I will try to keep my remarks reasonably brief. I endorse the remarks of my right hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Paul Goggins) about the draft Bill. He spoke having been a member of the Committee that considered the draft Detention of Terrorist Suspects (Temporary Extensions) Bill, the findings of which are important and directly relevant to the draft emergency legislation that the Government printed a few days ago. As he pointed out, although that Committee understood the Government's reasons for proposing that contingency powers to extend the maximum period for pre-charge detention should be provided in primary legislation so that they could be subject to parliamentary scrutiny, it still found a number of problems. Those problems exist also in relation to the draft enhanced TPIMs Bill, and it is important that we take a moment to remind ourselves of what the objections were. The first objection was in relation to parliamentary scrutiny of a draft Bill as primary legislation. The debate that would take place would be so circumscribed by the difficulties of explaining the reasons for introducing primary legislation that it would not be possible for the House to be given proper reasons why we needed to proceed along that route. In relation to the 28-day detention powers, the risk was that a court case might be prejudiced. In this case the objection is even more important, because we are talking about intelligence evidence that has been gathered by the security services, which of course cannot be discussed openly. That is the whole reason why we have closed sessions of courts to consider such matters—they cannot enter into the public domain. That rather defeats the purpose of having any debate on the Floor of the House. The second objection was that there would be an unacceptable degree of risk that it would be impossible to introduce and pass the legislation quickly when Parliament was in recess. Although that objection referred to the 28-day detention power, it is also important in this case. Counter-terror investigations are fast-moving, and it is not acceptable to say to the police that their reaction to investigations should be hampered while Parliament debates the matter, perhaps in a limited way, and decides to pass an Act. That would not be an acceptable way to proceed. The third objection related to the period when Parliament has been dissolved, but as we can see, that is precisely what new clauses 5 and 6 are intended to address. I say to the Minister that it is clear from the draft Bill that the Government have no principled objection to the control order powers that would suddenly be available once again. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) said, the draft Bill is an insurance policy that the Government are taking out on their TPIMs regime, which will decrease and weaken the powers available to the police and the Home Secretary to control the behaviour of terror suspects. It is extremely unacceptable for legislation to be conducted in such a way. Control order powers are either needed or they are not. This Bill has used up many hours of parliamentary time to take us round in a circle and bring us back to exactly where we started, with control orders. Rather than introduce this confused and fudged Bill, which raises many more questions, the Government should have been honest and admitted that sometimes, stringent control order measures such as relocation and 16-hour curfews are necessary. They should therefore have put them in the Bill that we are debating today. I am afraid that the ““argument on context””—that there is a standard context that would require only the standard TPIM, and an emergency context in which the enhanced TPIM might be required—does not hold up to any kind of scrutiny, because control orders and TPIMs, if they are introduced, are at the emergency end of what we do. They are not brought in lightly and have always been emergency measures. I was disappointed that the Minister chose to describe control orders, and indeed TPIMs, as ““business as usual””. That was a disappointing way of characterising them: it was lazy and potentially dangerous, because it implies that it is par for the course to apply such measures, and that that happens in the normal run of things. Control orders never happened in the normal run of things; they were and always have been exceptional. TPIMs will also be exceptional, so saying that they are an exceptional version of something that is already exceptional, or for use in an ““emergency emergency””, simply will not work. The Minister should be up front with the House and the public on that point. The framework in which we expect our police and security services to operate is also important. In our discussion on sunset clauses, the Minister spoke of the importance of a settled position, so that the police can plan, but the provisions are creating a more unsettled position, which prompts the question of how the police can plan for the terrorist risk that we face. We should have a more settled framework, but the draft legislation does not bring that about—it raises many more questions. When replying to the debate I ask the Minister to turn his mind to the specifics of when those powers will be used. In particular, would the circumstances of the case of CD trigger the passing of the draft Bill? That individual was relocated because he needed to be removed from London, where he was trying to gather weapons and engage in a Mumbai-style attack. Would that be an emergency situation in which the Home Secretary would choose to trigger the draft Bill? The hon. Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert) asked whether the mere fact that we are having the Olympics next year would be enough to trigger the draft Bill. What if resources are stretched? What if the impact of the cuts is too great for the police, even given the additional resources that will be available to them under the TPIMs regime? Would that be classed as an emergency that requires the passing of the draft Bill? We need clear answers from the Minister on how that will work. Without them, the House will be expected to legislate in the dark, which is an unacceptable way for us to proceed. The Opposition do not want the Secretary of State to be in a position in which she does not have the powers she needs to cope with an emergency when Parliament is dissolved, so we will not oppose Government new clauses 5 or 6. However, we have grave concerns about how the Government are proceeding with their draft legislation. They are exposing the fiction that has been at the heart of the control orders debate, which is based more on a political fudge than on an assessment of the security needs of the country. We need clearer answers from the Government on that point.