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Terrorism Bill

My Lords, the point of Section 44 is that you do not have to have an explanation. The difficulty, about which many organisations complain, is that police officers are not understanding the provision. Indeed, the Metropolitan Police Authority raised this as a source of anxiety, saying that it was interfering with trust in the police and they were worried about the consequences. Their powers are not sufficiently explained to them, and are using the provision in ways which are indiscriminate. As a result they are discriminating, using their powers most particularly against people deemed to be politically active, or who are brown-skinned and who look as though they may be Arab or of Islamic persuasion, or for whatever other reason they think might be involved in terrorism simply on appearance. That inevitably leads to real alienation within certain communities. That is what we have to guard against and the amendment attempts to return limitations to this power, to ensure that it is used only in the proper way.