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Terrorism Bill

It is a United Kingdom-wide jurisdiction. At the moment, as the noble Baroness knows, the position is slightly different because prosecutions have to have the assent of the Lord Advocate and the procurator fiscal. So, they would already have scrutiny of these matters. The position is slightly different in England and Wales. Therefore, we are making it clear that these prosecutions would have to have the assent of the Director of Public Prosecutions before they could be pursued. It is not proposed that these offences should be dealt with lightly; they are serious offences. We do not expect to have many of them. But when we do have them, we believe they are likely to be very important. Because of that importance, the scrutiny of the Director of Public Prosecutions is merited. I absolutely understand the Committee’s anxiety in this regard. However, I was pleased to note that the Royal Society of Chemistry, which I think is the society to which the noble Baroness referred, has welcomed the changes that we have made. In a notice issued on 5 December, its president, Dr Simon Campbell, commented that Amendment No. 79,"““will help to protect those engaged in legitimate scientific teaching and research and will avoid what would otherwise have been some very undesirable and unintended consequences””." He went on to note that the Royal Society of Chemistry still had concerns about the Bill. However, that was before I announced the Government’s intention to generalise the defences in Clause 1(7) and Clause 2(9). I am confident that the package we have now proposed should remove all concerns that the Bill will have a damaging impact on the academic community. I need to be very clear with your Lordships that that is our intent. We do not wish librarians and academics in any way to be disadvantaged or to discharge their duties in a significantly different way from what they do now. They do so honourably and to the credit of our country. I therefore urge the noble Lords who tabled Amendment No. 83 not to press it. I undertake, as I have indicated, to come back as quickly as we can with the drafts. I hope that when noble Lords have the opportunity to see how they fit together they will be satisfied that the assurances I have given hold good.