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Counter-Terrorism Bill

My Lords, undoubtedly the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, is correct: if the Speaker attaches a privilege statement to a Bill, there is nothing that this House can do about it. However, this House is entitled to express its concern that an amendment that it passed has not had the consideration that it should have had in the elected House. It seems strange that this unelected House should be more concerned about individual freedom and the information that is held on the private subject than the elected House of Commons is. I would expect the House of Commons to express great concern, as the Select Committee has. I would expect that it would want to ensure that information held by the police and the security services is essential and that information should not be held in respect of people who are completely innocent of any crime. That is what concerns me about the attitude of the Commons. The elected House of Commons exists, among other reasons, to protect people’s individual freedoms and to see that the state does not go beyond reasonableness in holding information about them. I hope that the Minister will tell us that the Government are concerned about this. I hope that their failure to accept the amendment is only a holding operation and that they are as concerned about individual freedom and the protection of the citizen as we are. I hope that they intend to examine the matter in depth and, in due course, to bring forward legislation to protect the citizen from having unnecessary information held by the police, the security services and, perhaps, a whole range of other organisations.