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Terrorism Bill

My Lords, I assure the noble Baroness that we will not and have not lightly dismissed this matter. She was absolutely right to remind us about the pernicious nature that training camps can have and the consequences that they can have in training and influencing those who subsequently go on to commit the most grievous acts of terror to the detriment of our respective communities and countries. We absolutely take that into account. Clause 8 creates the offence of attending a place where terrorist training is taking place to underline that very fact. We have to put these provisions in the context of the circumstances that we find ourselves in, whereby the training of young, impressionable men in particular has led to them taking their own lives and the lives of a number of innocent people with them. Preventing those susceptible—particularly young—people being taken in by such trainers and influenced in this most pernicious way is of the utmost importance. Therefore, we agree with noble Lords that this is a very important issue indeed, and we do not take it lightly, because training is a key element of any terrorist activity and it is right that we should clamp down on it. I know that concerns have been expressed today, not least by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, but by many other noble Lords as well—and my noble friend Lord Judd echoed them—about the effect that Clause   8 will have on legitimate investigative journalism. As I made clear in Committee, the Government’s position on that is unambiguous. Nothing in the clause, or the Bill as a whole, will in any way hinder the work of legitimate investigative journalism. A journalist who has suspicions that terrorist training is taking place can take steps to establish whether there is any foundation for his or her suspicions. However, at the point when his suspicions have been confirmed, the correct course is for him to leave and alert the appropriate authorities; that is as true for journalists as it is for anyone else.