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Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

My hon. Friend may or may not share my enthusiasm for some elements of the French system in this context. As he will know, in France there is often a three-way meeting between the police, the investigating magistrate and the justice department, at the stage when the files are looked at. A tactical and strategic decision is then taken whether to proceed to detention, as the French often do, or to allow the investigation to run further—perhaps for two or three months—in the hope of obtaining prosecutable evidence. I hope that the review will allow the British system to evolve in that way. If the proper audit trail showed that a prosecution could not be mounted, but that it might be possible in a few months if extra evidence had been accumulated, it should be possible to take the decision to allow the investigation to run.