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Counter-Terrorism Bill

I am most grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. He has looked carefully at the Government's proposals and I agree with him that the phrase ““grave exceptional terrorist threat”” might, given its ordinary English meaning, be taken to connote the sort of emergency that is akin to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. However, does he agree that if we look at new clause 20, we find that the definition of a ““grave exceptional terrorist threat”” is extremely wide—much wider than that of a state of emergency? Does he also agree that the bizarre aspect of the Government's proposals is that the basis will not be a grave exceptional terrorist threat, which Parliament will be asked to decide on in any case, as we will be asked to vote on an order that is simply a report on an operational need for a further extension of the maximum period of detention? Will the right hon. Gentleman please explain what the Home Secretary seems to have been incapable of explaining—how the House will be able to carry out its scrutiny processes in practice and how the Civil Contingencies Act in any way approximates to what the Government are actually doing?