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Terrorism: Rendition

My Lords, these cases had never been shared with us until last Friday, so it is not a case of this Government losing the file. Let me also make it clear that the steps to put in place a new and systematic means of ensuring that any rendition activities were fully reported to us, and our permission sought, emerged from 2003 onwards. That was when the issue became one of public concern; there was public debate and enquiries and investigations were undertaken by different organisations, including the ISC. It was during that period that these more systematic arrangements occurred. While already under existing informal practice we would have expected the cases in 2002 to be shared with us, the system has been systematised since. Let me again say that the US Government, at both the official and the political level, assure us that there have not been in the recent period, and there would not be in the future, any cases where they would seek to disguise or withhold from us renditions via British airspace or British territory.