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Terrorism Act 2006 (Disapplication of Section 25) Order 2009

My Lords, I am immensely grateful for the detailed and careful analysis of the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones. She gave us a very useful list of headlines that the Government need to address. If I had wanted to move instantly to abandon the order, I would have tested the opinion of the House tonight. However, I tabled a non-fatal amendment to encourage the Government to move incrementally backwards to 14 days. For all the Minister’s expertise, I did not hear him express an aspiration to approach that. It sounded to me as though he still felt that my aspiration was naive, because there was such a tremendous risk. We on these Benches accept that there will always be risk. The need to balance our values of justice with the necessity to minimise risk was eloquently expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Judd. What the Government are not doing—I did not hear the Minister say that he would be moving towards it—is producing evidence for us. This creates frustration. I heard it from the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones, and we on these Benches feel it, too. The Minister knows what he knows, but at the moment not enough evidence is produced—I am aware of the constraints—for Parliament to make a reasonable assessment based on what the Government are saying. Before we have the debate again this time next year, the Government must try harder and take on board the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Human Rights to produce that qualitative evidence. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment to the Motion withdrawn. Motion agreed. Sitting suspended.