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National Security

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made in another place by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister. The Statement is as follows: ““With permission, Mr Speaker, on 29 and 30 June the professionalism, vigilance and the courage of our police and our security and emergency services thwarted a conspiracy to murder and maim British citizens. ““Britain—led by London and Glasgow—stood firm in the face of threats, and our calmness and steadfastness as a nation sent a powerful message across the world that we will not yield to terrorism nor ever be intimidated by it. These events were the 15th attempted terrorist plot on British soil since 2001. ““As previously set out, the police and security services are currently having to contend with around 30 known plots and monitor over 200 groupings or networks and around 2,000 individuals. I think the whole House will agree that our country—and all countries—have to confront a generation-long challenge to defeat al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist violence. ““In recognition of the continuing long-term threat, we have created a new National Security Committee to oversee the new Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism. Following the first two meetings of the National Security Committee, I want to report on changes that we now recommend to this House. First, let me confirm to the House that in future we will publish a national security strategy, and that the first will be published and presented in the autumn to Parliament for debate and decision in this House. At the time of the spending review we will announce a single security budget for our country. ““In line with the Butler report, we will separate the position of chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee from policy adviser to the Government, so the sole responsibility of the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee will be to provide Ministers with assessments that have been formulated independently of the political process and, therefore, to improve across government the effectiveness of intelligence analysis. ““Today I am also publishing the Intelligence and Security Committee report on rendition. The Government are consulting on how in future the ISC should be appointed and should report to Parliament with, where possible, hearings in public, a strengthened capacity for investigations, reports subject to more parliamentary debate and greater transparency over appointments to the committee. ““To strengthen the counterterrorist capability of the police and security services, we have since 11 September doubled our overall investment to more than £2 billion a year. Dedicated anti-terrorist resources have also doubled. Even in advance of the spending review settlement for future years, the security service will by next year, be twice the size it was in 2001. ““The protection and resilience of our major infrastructure and crowded places require continuous vigilance. I can confirm that over 900 shopping centres, sports stadiums and venues where people congregate have been assessed by counterterrorism security advisers, that over 10,000 premises have been given updated security advice and that the police will continue high-visibility patrols. ““The counterterrorism Bill will include a new power allowing the Secretary of State to ensure additional protection for key utility sites, and we have asked Lord West to oversee over this summer a further review of how best we protect crowded places and our buildings and national infrastructure: roads, railways, tunnels, bridges, water systems and utilities. ““Since 1997, the Government have given the police new resources and Parliament has provided new legal powers to arrest and try terrorists. Thanks to the hard work, dedication and commitment of the men and women in the police, security and intelligence services and the prosecuting authorities, this year alone in nine cases a total of 30 individuals have been convicted. The forthcoming counterterrorism Bill will propose additional penalties for terrorists charged with other criminal offences. ““Our first line of defence against terrorism is overseas at other countries’ ports and airports, where people embark on journeys to our country and from where embassies issue visas. To protect us in routes and places where there is the greatest threat of harm, I believe that we now need to accelerate our plans, completing the move from old and ineffective paper-based systems to real-time monitoring, which will allow us to act immediately and in a co-ordinated way across immigration, police and intelligence. The way forward is electronic screening of all passengers as they check in and out of our country at ports and airports so that terrorist suspects can be identified and stopped before they board planes, trains and boats to the United Kingdom. ““After a review of counterterrorism screening, and as part of the overall spending settlement for security to be set out in the autumn, the Home Secretary will enhance the existing e-borders programme to incorporate all passenger information to help track and intercept terrorists and criminals as well as illegal immigrants. While new biometric visas are already in place for immigrants from high-risk countries, I can confirm that within nine months, from March next year, we will extend biometric visas to all visa applicants and from 2009 we will introduce a new, enhanced system of electronic exit control linking the checking of passports to checking against the warnings index. ““The second line of defence is at our borders where biometrics—not just fingerprints but iris recognition—are already in use. To strengthen the powers and surveillance capability of our border guards and security officers, we will now integrate the vital work of the Border and Immigration Agency, Customs and UK Visas overseas and at the main points of entry to the UK and establish a unified border force. ““I have asked the Cabinet Secretary to report back by October on the stages ahead in implementation and whether there is a case for going further while ensuring value for money. But as a result of our announcement today, the first change people will see is that, starting from next month, when arriving in Britain, they will be met at the border, either a sea port or airport, by a highly visible, uniformed presence, as over the next period we move, for the first time, to one single primary checkpoint for both passport control and customs. ““But this, our second line of defence, has also to be complemented by a third line of defence: ID security within our own borders. While for UK citizens the first biometric ID cards will start during 2009, from the end of 2008, any foreign nationals coming to the UK for more than six months will be required to have a biometric ID. Such an identity scheme will help prevent people already in the country using multiple identities for terrorist, criminal or other purposes. ““In the identification of potential terrorist suspects, there should be maximum co-operation internationally with maximum possible use made of alerts and watch lists. While Lord West’s review has found no systematic failings in our procedures for checking potential suspects, it has highlighted the importance of enhancing existing co-operation to share more information between police and immigration services and internationally across countries within the EU to enable British law enforcement authorities to access immigration information on existing EU databases, bilaterally with other member states mutually to exchange information, and joining up criminal records databases throughout the EU so that our authorities can quickly identify individuals charged with crimes, no matter where in Europe they are convicted. At a cost of £5 million, we will link the UK watch list to the Interpol database of lost and stolen documents. ““In addition to the nine foreign nationals recently deported under immigration powers on grounds of national security, a further 21 foreign nationals are currently subject to deportation proceedings on national security grounds. On the same grounds, we are preventing 124 individuals coming to our country and refusing to admit another 52 for glorifying terrorism or other unacceptable behaviour. Overall, 4,000 foreign prisoners are likely to be deported this year. Having agreed repatriation arrangements with Jordan, Libya, Lebanon and Algeria, we will now press ahead to sign more agreements. ““Mr Speaker, liberty is the first and founding value of our country and security is the first duty of government. The British way is that every measure we take to enhance security is complimented by additional protections against any arbitrary treatment and in defence of the liberties of the individual. So we want to consult widely and we look forward to seeking and obtaining all-party consensus on how we treat intercept evidence and new provisions for pre-charge detention and post-charge questioning. The independent and cross-party review into the use of intercept as evidence in court will be led by Privy Counsellors Sir John Chilcot, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer of Sandwell, the noble Lord, Lord Hurd, and the right honourable Member for Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Mr Alan Beith. ““While it is already a criminal offence to seek training for terrorism overseas or in this country, we will consult on tightening up bail conditions and, in particular, the restriction of travel in any cases where people are suspected of complicity with terrorism. ““We have in place a regime which allows pre-charge detention up to 28 days. There is already general agreement that the circumstances in which the police will need to go beyond even 14 days will be rare and will be subject to special procedures, both of judicial oversight and of parliamentary accountability. There is also, I detect, a growing weight of opinion—including from the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation—that there may be some circumstances in which detention beyond 28 days could be necessary: where the police have to intervene early to avert an attack; where there may be huge quantities of material evidence to be analysed; and where there is a need for assistance from other countries. The 2005 case, cited in previous debates on this issue, involved investigation of some 60 mobile phones, 268 computers, and 920 DVDs. However, the airline investigation last August involved 200 mobile phones, 400 computers, 8,000 CDs, DVDs and disks containing 6,000 gigabytes of data, searching nearly 70 businesses and open spaces, with inquiries across three continents. Another case involved 3,000 statements, examining 6,000 documents, with over 8,000 exhibits and inquiries across nine countries. During the recent period, six people had to be held for 27 or 28 days. ““While one of the proposals we are bringing forward, with broad support, is to allow post-charge questioning for the explicit purpose of securing evidence in a terrorism trial will reduce the risk that we need to go beyond 28 days, the Home Affairs Select Committee which investigated these matters concluded that this step will not eliminate the risks entirely. It is right to explore whether a consensus can be built on the most measured way to deal with this remaining risk. I hope the House will agree that we should not return to the proposal rejected by the House, but I also hope that the House will agree that there has to be a maximum limit set by Parliament. ““We today put forward four options for consultation over the coming months. One proposal that we cite in the consultation document from Liberty—to which we are grateful for engaging constructively in the debate—is that if this risk materialises, we should declare an emergency under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and allow for a period beyond the 28-day limit, for up a further 30 days, although that would require the declaring of a state of emergency. ““We are also proposing for consultation—this would not require a state of emergency—an extension of the current limit for up to 28 days more, or a lesser period, but only if, in addition to the requirement that a judge must approve every seven-day extension, the case is notified to Parliament and subject to a timely report to it of all circumstances, and with the option of a later parliamentary debate. This means that any extension would not only be subject to a specific case being made by the Director of Public Prosecutions, subject every seven days—up to the agreed limit—to the approval of a High Court judge and subject to the regular report of the independent reviewer, with an annual debate in Parliament, but also subject in each and every instance to a specific parliamentary notification procedure, to a further statement to Parliament on the individual case, a review on the specific case by the independent reviewer and with the provision for this House to scrutinise and debate the report and all the circumstances. ““However, Mr Speaker, more important even than consensus here in this House is the consensus we will seek in all the communities across this country. Since the attacks of 7 July 2005, communities in Britain and across the world have come together in a common front against terrorism and against the propaganda that fuels it. This requires not just the security measures we are outlining, but that we work with all communities and all countries through debate, discussion, dialogue and education as we tackle at root the evils that risk driving people, particularly vulnerable young people, into the hands of violent extremists. Here, colleges, schools, universities, civil society and faith groups—indeed, every institution in our country—have a part to play. ““Last week, President Sarkozy of France and I agreed to propose the formation of a joint working group with Germany and others to share our experiences and develop ways to expose and defeat terrorism. We will report later this year on this work but we can make a start today. Over the next three years, we will provide an additional £70 million for local authorities and community groups to improve the capacity of local communities to resist violent extremism. This will include developing leadership programmes for young people, strengthening the capacity of women’s groups, and local projects to build citizenship. ““There are perhaps as many as 1,000 madrassahs in Britain, educating between 50,000 and 100,000 young people in after-school classes. In Bradford, an agreement was reached to include citizenship education in their curriculum and we will now offer to work with other communities on similar programmes. We will also support a new skills qualification in citizenship and community cohesion for faith leaders, sponsor English-speaking imams, propose inter-faith bodies in every community in the country to build greater understanding, and update guidance to universities before the autumn on how they can do more to protect safety and security, particularly of vulnerable young people. I can also confirm funding for a BBC Arabic channel and an editorially independent Farsi TV channel for the people of Iran. Following further discussion, the Government will report back to Parliament on further measures that can isolate extremists who preach and practice terrorism. ““Mr Speaker, our priority as a Government is a Britain strong in security, robust in our resolve and resilient in response, so that as a nation we both defeat terrorism and isolate violent extremism wherever we confront it and whatever its support. I hope that in doing so, an all-party consensus that will extend into every community of our country is possible so that, together, we create a stronger, safer, more cohesive Britain””. My Lords, that concludes the Statement.