Terrorism Bill

The point has already been made: if we readily accept 90 days, and if the police say at some future stage that they need four, five or six months, will we simply turn round and say, ““The police have required this, there is an acute terrorist threat, and we will agree””? At what stage will we say that the period of detention should be shorter than the police want? I happen to believe that 28 days is a reasonable compromise. Another factor that should be borne in mind is that of those who were held for up to 14 days and subsequently released, no one was later charged—the very point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan) in Committee. I repeat: no one who was held for up to 14 days and subsequently released was later charged, despite, no doubt, ongoing police investigations. If I may say so, we should exercise a little caution, a little hesitation, before agreeing so readily to 90 days. Of course the police have a perfect right to request more time. I shall not go into whether the police should be lobbying for it, because I think that that is irrelevant, as are the Prime Minister’s authority and the Government’s standards. I want to deal with the crux of the matter. What should concern us is the balance to which I have referred.