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Terrorism Bill

My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the British Library. I join in the general congratulations to the signatories of the amendment on having achieved the consensus that is represented before us. While I welcome the amendment, I ask the Minister for two assurances. First, at Second Reading and other stages of the Bill, I raised the issue of the relationship between the requirements of this Bill and of the British Library Act 1972 and the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 with respect to the corporate person of the British Library and the other copyright libraries. The two issues on which I particularly focused were the requirement under the 1972 Act that the British Library maintain a comprehensive collection—and, therefore, it should indeed collect terrorist materials—and the requirement placed on the legal deposit libraries in general under the 2003 Act to receive copyright material whether in print or electronic. Those two requirements do not now conflict with the Bill, as amended, but I should like the Government’s assurance that the Bill does not conflict with the statutory requirements under those two Acts. The second assurance that I would be most grateful if the Minister could give me refers to what has now become known as the Hazel Blears letter written in January of this year to many persons interested in this Bill, and quoted on Report by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams of Crosby, in which my right honourable friend Hazel Blears argued that libraries should not allow,"““impressionable people to see such publications””.—[Official Report, 17/1/06; col. 563.]" The letter was suggesting that libraries would in future have to examine and test everyone who wanted to look at particular materials. My noble friend Lady Scotland, in replying to the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, said that my right honourable friend’s letter had been written prior to the Government’s change of mind with respect to Clause 2 and that if the letter were to be written again, it would be phrased differently. If the Minister can indicate in what way it would be phrased differently, that would be enormously helpful to the libraries community. In conclusion, I echo what has been said by my noble friend Lady Warwick. I thank those who have supported the libraries, particularly the British Library and the copyright libraries, in the discussions on the Bill. I pay particular tribute to the indefatigable support of the noble Baroness, Lady Williams of Crosby, for the British Library, for which, I assure her, the library and its staff are enormously grateful.