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Terrorism Bill

I appreciate wholeheartedly such total generosity. Our Chief Whip is almost overwhelmed with gratitude. It is a requirement of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, of which the UK is a signatory, to criminalise terrorist training. As noble Lords may be aware, a number of those offences are already contained in British law: in Section 54 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which pertains to weapons training among other things. Clause 6 supplements Section 54 to close the existing gap of any other form of training for terrorist purposes. That includes training for use of noxious or hazardous substances, providing training in certain skills, methods and techniques where you know or suspect that a person receiving that training is doing so to use them for the purposes of terrorism, or the receiving of any of that training with the intention to use it for terrorist purposes. On Second Reading, a number of noble Lords expressed concern about the effect of Clause 6 on legitimate academic study and teaching. As I mentioned at the conclusion of the Second Reading debate, among the representations that we have received on the matter were those from the very august Royal Society of Chemistry, which I thank for its numerous conversations with us and letters. As I made clear, the Government have never intended to curtail or stifle legitimate academic activity or teaching. I am grateful to those noble Lords who acknowledged that they did not believe it was the Government’s intention either. It is my sincere belief that legitimate academic study would not be criminalised by the Bill in its current formulation. I said that earlier today but, in view of some of the other comments made, I think that we should note it again. Nevertheless, we want to set everyone’s mind at rest. I am therefore delighted to move Amendment No. 79 and even more delighted that everybody seems now to agree that it is the right thing to do. Unless noble Lords would like me to go on for considerably longer, I beg to move.