Proceeding contribution from Earl of Erroll (Crossbench) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 24 March 2009. It occurred during Ministerial statement on Counterterrorism.
Counterterrorism
My Lords, I have two brief questions for the Minister, the first of which concerns the four "P" points set out in the Statement. On "Pursue", while I accept quite happily that lawful intercept activities should be available to the intelligence agencies, I am worried that "prosecute" comes under "Pursue" when it ought to be a fifth point. That might get rid of the problems we have with control orders and the detention of people without trial for long periods. We should be aiming to get cases through the law courts and not going against habeas corpus. My second question is this. Towards the end of the Statement it says that, ""the challenge that all of us in this House face is to strike the right balance between measures to protect security and the right to life"." Does this mean a shoot-to-kill policy, or does it mean what I think it probably does, a right to a private life? If the latter is the case, would the Minister take into consideration my first comment that lawful intercept is acceptable? However, data mining and communications data probably are not because we have the right to a private life and we need to make sure that that right is maintained. Also on the right to life, security measures mean that I often have to queue for hours in various places for security checks. That effectively deprives me of some of my life because there is nothing else I can do in those hours. An overreaction to the terrorist threat can actually be counterproductive.
Secondary information
- Type
- Proceeding contribution
- Reference
- 709 c579-80
- Session
- 2008-09
- Chamber / Committee
- House of Lords chamber
- Subjects
- Crime prevention Finance Intelligence services Police Terrorism al Qaeda Radicalism
- Link
- View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk
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