---

Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

I welcome the Bill and the speed with which the Government have introduced it. Nobody would want any Bill to have to pass all its stages in one day, and for the House to miss the opportunity of pre-legislative scrutiny, but I am wholly convinced that the serious risk of no effective provisions being in place for terrorist asset freezing following the Supreme Court decision and, significantly, following the Supreme Court's refusal to suspend that judgment, justifies the unusual action being taken by the Government today. Opposition Members have made much about the Government somehow failing to heed the warning signs of legal action against the orders, but the High Court's quashing of the order in early 2008 was overturned later that year by the Court of Appeal.