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Terrorism Bill

I shall briefly endorse the warning given by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, that one should be very careful before extending the grounds for proscription. In addition to the reasons he gave, I suggest that the penalties that follow—not the criminal penalties, but those from being put on the proscribed list—are very serious and impede what should be accepted as reasonably possible activities in a democratic community. They include the difficulty of publicising the ideas of the organisation or raising funds, as well as the risk of being guilty of a criminal offence once an organisation is proscribed. Therefore, one should be very careful before extending the grounds for proscription. The second reason why this warning is apposite is that it is very difficult for an organisation to get off the list once it has been proscribed. The courts are reluctant to interfere because they think that a tribunal has been specially set up for that purpose. We have seen organisations that claim to be in no way violent and not to have advocated anything that would be prohibited or forbidden in a democratic society having the greatest difficulty in getting a case before the appropriate tribunal to get their names removed. I fully understand the reasons why the Government want to go further, but I suggest that this clause, as now proposed, is not a satisfactory or sufficiently precise model to be adopted in this area.