My Lords, I intervene briefly to support government Amendment 56A and Clause 64 itself. I have followed closely the important and impressive debates on this clause in Committee and today. By the way, anyone who doubts the value of the House of Lords should read those speeches, because they demonstrate clearly this House’s concern for the rights of the individual.
The issue with which this House is grappling, not for the first time, is how to strike the balance between national security and the rights of the individual, in particular the situation that can arise when the Home Secretary of the day has reason to believe that an individual poses a grave threat to the UK’s national security but when, for various reasons, that person cannot be charged and brought to court. This is a dilemma with which Parliament has had to wrestle in recent years. Where a person poses such a threat but cannot be brought to court, it is right that Parliament
should concern itself with the treatment and rights of that individual and the practicalities, as this House did on 17 March and is doing again today. I have had to ask myself: are there any instances of a Home Secretary, whether Labour or Conservative, depriving a person of citizenship on scant evidence and without good reason?
6.15 pm
The main point that I want to make is this. Those outside Parliament—our fellow citizens—need to know that we are debating this subject because of the threats of terrorism that our country faces. As the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, said in Committee,
“everyone in your Lordships’ House without exception wants to do all they can to protect citizens from a potential terrorist threat and activity at home and abroad”.—[Official Report, 17/3/14; col. 41.]
Ensuring the security of the 60 million citizens of our country is a responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the Home Secretary. It is a very heavy responsibility because we know, from what the head of MI5 has said publicly, that the security services are constantly monitoring thousands of potential terrorists. That is the background to Clause 64. It is, as I have said, a vital part of this House’s responsibility to look at what might be the impact of this clause on those individuals brought within its scope, but it is important, when we consider this clause and these amendments, that our fellow citizens clearly understand that the purpose of Clause 64 is to protect their safety and their security.