Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (Continuance in force of sections 1 to 9) Order 2007

rose to move, as an amendment to the Motion, at end to insert ““but this House regrets that the Government have not replaced control orders with new measures to strengthen the ability of terror suspects to be prosecuted in court.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the Government have not replaced control orders with new measures to strengthen the ability to prosecute terror suspects in our courts, and the Minister gave no indication when changes are likely to happen. We have consistently criticised these measures, and we have previously voiced our two major concerns. The first is about the standard of proof, which we want to raise from the Home Secretary’s standard of ““reasonable suspicions”” to a standard based on ““the balance of probabilities””. Secondly, non-derogating control orders should have to be granted by a judge and not by a politician. I am seriously concerned that our criminal justice system, which has served us well, can no longer be trusted and that the Home Secretary should exercise powers indefinitely to detain suspected international terrorists. In key areas of its responsibility, the Home Office has failed miserably. Look at the mess in immigration and asylum statistics, the fiasco surrounding the deportation of foreign prisoners and the files that were never recorded on police computers. I am more likely to place my faith in the judicial system than in the Home Office. Surely we are not seriously saying that our judicial system cannot deal with 18 individuals who are now the subject of control orders. The House of Lords Judicial Committee declared these provisions incompatible with the Human Rights Act. I can well understand the Home Office’s intentions, which are to provide a lesser restriction on freedom than imprisonment, and to ensure that the powers are non-discriminatory in their application. However, I am still puzzled as to why it is not possible for our courts to exercise these powers. We secured substantial changes to the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 during its passage, including a commitment to bring forward further legislation to extend the range of criminal offences, with the object of allowing individuals to be brought to court instead of being subjected to extraordinary and extra-judicial powers. The promise of a full review of terrorism legislation a year after the 2005 Act was abandoned by Charles Clarke in February 2006. However, under the current Home Office regime, it is no longer clear that a review of control orders will be incorporated into the forthcoming anti-terror Bill. Reports of this new terror review have focused on breaking up the Home Office and extending the 28-day pre-charge detention limit. In his latest formal statement on the issue, John Reid said: "““Control orders continue to be an essential tool to protect the public from terrorism, particularly where it is not possible to prosecute individuals for terrorist-related activity and, in the case of foreign nationals, where they cannot be removed from the UK””." In a speech, the Home Secretary also said that, "““They are weak, they are hard for the police to implement, they involve massive manpower from the police and security services to try to carry out surveillance. They have got holes all through them””." That suggests that any review would involve strengthening the control orders rather than pushing for more prosecutions in the place of orders. It would be helpful if the Minister could explain whether that is so. Perhaps I may make our position clear. We do not dispute that effective action against terrorism is vital. Our priority will be to extend the criminal law to enable terrorist suspects to be prosecuted in the mainstream courts. We will admit evidence from communications interception. If control orders are then still required, they will have to be granted by a judge, time-limited and subject to a high standard of proof. No one underestimates the nature of modern terrorism—it poses huge challenges to our criminal justice system—but our response should be to reform, streamline and strengthen our system to bring terror suspects before court. The powers of curfew and tags imposed behind closed doors are not a substitute for aggressive use of the full force of the law. Would-be terrorists are criminal and should be treated as such. We are not alone in criticising these orders. My noble friend Lord Carlile, whom the Minister quoted, raised serious concerns in his second report which was published on 16 February. He identified a number of difficulties, and I am grateful to Amnesty International for distilling what he had to say on some of these matters. His criticisms include the fact that, taken together, the obligations imposed on controllees fall, "““not very far short of house arrest, and certainly inhibit normal life considerably””." My noble friend has also identified the mental health implications of control orders. He has spelt out the urgent need for a strategy to end control orders, not least because some of the controllees have already been the subject of an order for a considerable time. He expresses his hope that, given the restricted nature of non-derogating orders, no derogating orders will be required. He has also identified the need for greater effort to bring about the prosecution of controllees and to examine the limitations of judicial review in control orders. All of that comes from my noble friend, who has access to information which is not available to many of us. The sooner that control orders are repealed and replaced by a package of new measures to prosecute suspects in court, the better it will be. Perhaps I may spell out the position that we took in the other place. Instead of holding suspects for extended periods without charge, we need to consider ways in which charges can be brought more rapidly in the first place. We should make it easier, for instance, for prosecutors to bring charges against terror suspects where evidence has not yet been fully produced but there is a good prospect that it will be. We should also re-examine the circumstances in which the police can question suspects after charge. We must find a way to introduce phone-tap evidence in court with protections for the security services so that agents and surveillance methods are not compromised. We should use plea-bargaining more effectively to encourage so-called super-grasses to give evidence against more serious criminals. The Government have already passed plea-bargaining legislation to tackle organised crime; why not use it to thwart terror plots, too? If there remains a handful of individuals who cannot be charged and for whom control order-like powers are still required, the orders must be granted by a judge and time-limited and be subject not only to a higher standard of proof but to regular and thorough assessment of the possibility of prosecution. Anything less would be a betrayal not only of our traditional British system of justice but of our duty to pursue prosecutions against criminals who plot to carry out terrorist atrocities. We are committed to repealing this legislation and this debate provides an opportunity to vote in favour of repeal. It would be perverse to reject this opportunity. The Government have on numerous occasions disregarded and/or extended their promise to review control orders. It was only the courts’ abolition of the powers in the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 that precipitated the move to this less draconian measure. Abolishing control orders would provide a similar impetus. Our focus is on prosecution. The Government created new criminal offences including acts preparatory to terrorism and indirect incitement to terrorism under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, both of which we advocated. They are now in force and should reduce the need for control orders. The Government have an up-and-coming terror Bill in which they can address further loopholes, allow phone-tap evidence and review control orders. There is no evidencefrom the Home Office concerning where we should go from here. We should object to this order now and until the future of control orders is clarified. I beg to move. Moved, as an amendment to the Motion, at end to insert ““but this House regrets that the Government have not replaced control orders with new measures to strengthen the ability of terror suspects to be prosecuted in court””.—(Lord Dholakia.)