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Counter-Terrorism Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for telling me that. I knew it, and I was going to comment on it later. Andy Hayman said that the mechanism to try to move the timescale from 28 days to 42 was, I repeat, "““not fit for purpose … bureaucratic, convoluted and unworkable””." He went on to say of the proposals that, "““just trying to understand them gives me a headache””." The full text is in the Times of 6 October, and I refer the noble Baroness to it. Andy Hayman was making the same point as ACPO, which said that it would like some sort of mechanism that took us into an area of certainty if we were running up against the 28 days. That was my next point: to ask your Lordships why we should embark on such a course, if we were ever to face running out of time at 28 days, when the existing law can come to our aid. One can use existing law. As it is almost inconceivable that we would hold anyone in custody at the 27-day—not the 28-day—point without there being some evidence against them, one should simply charge them with the lesser offence under terrorism legislation. There are many possibilities—membership of a proscribed organisation, possession of material, preparatory acts and so on—that one might call the second division of terrorist offences, falling short of the gravest of those offences. One therefore charges the lesser offence and continues the investigation, and if evidence of a more serious offence comes to light, one charges that later. The point is that at the time of the first charge, the 28-day clock stops running. In fact, all clocks in that judicial sense stop running. The defendant now has access to legal representation and appears before a court. In short, he is in the normal judicial process. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, will shortly propose an amendment that will allow post-charge questioning in circumstances with a judicial overview, and I shall support him. Again, the existing law, with only a very slight amendment, can quite adequately give us the flexibility that we need without adding the inflammatory words ““42 days””. That is my fifth point; those words would most certainly be inflammatory, and would almost certainly give ammunition to those who seek to justify acts of terrorism against us—those who, in other words, seek to recruit others to oppose what they contend is our repressive regime—and it would be an act of sheer folly to provide them with such a gift. I have made five points so far: we have never come close to running out of time, and if we did we could use the existing law; no other common-law country has more than a 12-day limit; there is massive opposition to this suggestion from some of the most influential and respected quarters; the suggested mechanisms, or procedures, are unworkable; and there is a risk of a fundamental backlash. This legislation is fatally flawed, ill thought through and unnecessary. I said that I had six points. My sixth point is that, perhaps worst of all, the legislation seeks further to erode fundamental, legal and civil rights that have been the pride of this country for centuries. Simple mathematics will tell us that 793 years ago Magna Carta declared in one line: "““'To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice””." We have recommended that principle to the rest of the world and have in part fought wars to preserve it. It set our legal system apart from the world for many years and it was held up as an exemplar. We have gone far enough. There is no proven case for change. This attempt to appear tough on terrorism is a shabby charade that is unworthy of a democratic process, and we should reject it. I beg to move.