Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Bill

The Minister has been very generous in giving way this evening. He has refused to be drawn on ““second-guessing””, as he put it, the level of threat that would lead him or the Home Secretary to believe that these enhanced TPIM powers were necessary. However, he said that part of his consideration would be whether the threat was ““imminent””—that was the word he used. An ““imminent threat”” could mean the next 12 hours, the next 24 hours, the next 48 hours or the next week. How does he square that level of risk with the fact that he is prepared to put measures in the Bill that would require separate primary legislation that might take at least a week to procure—perhaps even longer during recess? How can he square those two things? In my view, they simply cannot be squared.