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Terrorism Act 2006 (Disapplication of Section 25) Order 2007

My Lords, I say to the noble Lord that we do not underestimate the threat of terrorism to this country. We take it very seriously. I do not want the noble Lord to be in any doubt about that. However, we believe that if it is necessary to constrain liberty in the face of the terrorist threat, we must have some evidence of that. My concern today is not a concern of principle, but that the Government have not produced that evidence. We want to hear it. The Minister said that the Government were going to produce a paper tomorrow suggesting some extension of the 28 days; he did not say how much. We are not ideologically opposed to an extension of 28 days if there is really cogent evidence that that is necessary. However, what has been lacking so far is that evidence, both in relation to the extension from 28 days and for the necessity of 28 days itself.