Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 3 February 2010.

Control Orders

Question: My Lords, is my noble friend aware of the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, in his capacity as the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, that there is no readily available alternative to control orders? Is he also aware of the interesting document on national security published by the Conservative Party, in which it, too, acknowledge that the best that the party can offer as an alternative is to review the system with a view to reducing reliance on it—which, as I understand it, is the Government’s policy?

Answer: My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right. The noble Lord, Lord Carlile, who is the independent reviewer, stated, ""it is my view and advice that abandoning the control orders system entirely would have a damaging effect on national security"." He went on to emphasise that he had considered the effects of the court decisions on disclosure and did not agree that the effect was to make control orders impossible. My noble friend is absolutely right that we constantly review this issue. I am very hard on people, when they try to come up with a control order, to see that it is absolutely necessary. It is interesting that those in the party opposite, who earlier said that they were going to get rid of these things, have, amazingly, slightly changed their view—which is much more sensible, because all of us are interested in the security of our nation.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 717 c195
Session: 2009-10
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: House of Lords Judgements Appellate Committee Anti-terrorism control orders
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk