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Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011

My Lords, I think I got a reasonable amount of support; I am not sure that the noble Lord got quite as much; but we will leave it there. I shall just respond to a few points briefly. First, on the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, as to why it took so long, I understand that we have 120 days to respond. It was explained to me how the 120 days are counted, and I have to say that I could not quite understand it, but I am told that we are within those 120 days by a matter of five days or so. The important thing is that the draft order had to be laid for 60 days to start with, so that is half the time gone, to allow representations to be made. The remaining time was to allow those representations, including the report of the JCHR, to be properly considered. I am also grateful that my noble friend Lady Hamwee and others welcomed the code, but obviously have some concerns about it. I think that my colleague in the Home Office, James Brokenshire, in his response to the JCHR’s second report has made it clear that we will consider whether the code of practice, proposed new Section 47A or the test of its use could be amended through the Protection of Freedoms Bill when we get to it in due course. Obviously this matter can be considered by the department and there will be a chance for the House to consider it when we deal with the Bill. I can say to the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, that the code refers only to random searches in the context of specific intelligence-based authorisation. Again, as I said, I am happy to look at the guidance further to ensure that this is clear for the police. My noble friend Lord Carlile stressed that Section 44 had been overused, misused and abused. That is a succinct way of saying what the problem was and I am grateful for the support that I have had from all sides of the House for its removal and replacement with proposed new Section 47A. Obviously we can look at this again during the passage of the Protection of Freedoms Bill. There was a final question from my noble friend Lady Hamwee on paragraph 8.39 of the report of the independent reviewer of terrorism last July. I have to admit that it is not exactly at my fingertips at the moment and I hope that my noble friend will be happy if I write to her in due course. I promise to do that as soon as possible. Motion agreed.