Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

I echo the hon. Gentleman's point about expectations of how the Counter-Terrorism Bill might assist by making it likely that the need for control orders diminishes or goes away entirely. However, I must remind the hon. Gentleman of what he said about how he thinks the Government will deal with the Counter-Terrorism Bill: he said that he was cynical, and not confident that they will address it in the way he hopes. There has been little progress on the four points my right hon. Friend raised 12 months ago. Members have rightly drawn attention to the time limits issue. The Minister quoted Lord Carlile's report, and he will therefore be familiar with the points Lord Carlile made about what he describes as the ““endgame”” in relation to control orders. He said:"““I remain concerned about the ending, or endgame, of each control order””," and he also stated that they"““cannot be continued indefinitely””." He also said that, 12 months ago,"““I advised that, as a matter of urgency, a strategy is needed for the ending of the orders in relation to each controlee””," and"““it is only in rare cases that control orders can be justified for more than two years.””" He also advises—the Minister has responded to this—"““that there should be a recognised and possibly statutory presumption against a control order being extended beyond two years””." The Minister has made it clear that he does not support Lord Carlile's view. However, I hope he will at least agree that his position is worthy of debate, and possibly of a vote in this place at some point in the near future. While we are on the subject of time limits, it might be useful to mention that there is a need for a time restriction on the curfew of 12 hours, following the House of Lords judgment that an 18-hour detention period is unacceptable. The Joint Committee on Human Rights requested that restriction. I hope the Minister will make clear his position on that issue and whether the Government have a view on what an appropriate detention or curfew period might be. My right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam also raised concerns about the review process 12 months ago. We welcome the creation of the control orders review group and how it is operating.