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Policing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Northern Ireland) Order 2007

Indeed I do. As someone who has been a soldier in Northern Ireland, I may have allowed someone whom I know to be a terrorist to move freely with a loaded van from point A to point B so that I could intercept him at that point, while at the same protecting a terrorist who is compromised so that he may be of further use to me as an informant. That is collusion but not a crime. In legal terms—I do not have to tell the noble Baroness about legal issues—it could not result in me being charged with collusion. I am doing by job. I may collude—and I understand the dictionary meaning of the word—with the most dreadful terrorist who is supplying me with information. I assure the Minister that that is exactly what one did. One did not, however, conspire with the terrorist to kill someone else. Therein lies the difference. I do hope that she fully understands my point. I appeal to her again to speak to her colleagues—who have huge experience, as I know after serving in Northern Ireland—before she proceeds down this road.