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Counter-Terrorism Bill

My Lords, I am glad that my noble friend tabled Amendment No. 6. It seems to me a worthwhile response, as far as it goes, to the anxieties about the Bill’s provisions on post-charge questioning expressed in Committee, most notably by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, but also by others of us. As the House knows, I support the provision of a contingency power for the Home Secretary within tightly defined conditions to extend pre-charge detention of terrorist suspects. The delicate but always pragmatic balance of liberty and security may properly be recalibrated in circumstances of major terrorist threat. However, if that is done, there is an absolute duty on us to ensure that procedures for questioning people who are detained and trying people who are accused are such as to secure justice. I welcome the safeguards that my noble friend has proposed in response to our debate in Committee to provide for judicial oversight of post-charge questioning; but I also hope that he will reflect carefully on the merits, which seem very great, of the further safeguards proposed by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, in his amendments and in his speech.