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Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

My right hon. Friend has talked about the problems of high principle with this issue and he is now discussing the legal problems, but I should like to draw his attention to one simple practical point. We were led to believe that thousands of people would be subject to these control orders when the legislation went through the House in 2005, but that has not turned out to be the case. Some 45 people have been subject to such orders and of those 45, seven have absconded. One would think that the seriously dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists would be the ones who would abscond, which indicates that this regime is not just flawed, but totally useless.