Counter-Terrorism Bill

My Lords, this debate has been dominated so strongly by the 42 day issue that it is tempting to choose for one’s own seven minutes one of the Bill’s less notorious, but still alarming, provisions. I would have chosen the Government’s amiable attempt in Part 6 to rid themselves of the tiresomeness of having juries and local coroners at certain inquests, and to put in a coroner of their own choosing, so long as he behaves. This would all be on the certificate of the Secretary of State that, on some ground or other, it is in the public interest to do so. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Ramsay of Cartvale, about Part 6. That will be a pleasure postponed, because the 42 days issue is of such importance that I want to offer my view on it, however repetitious it may be. I begin with a general reflection. It is greatly to the credit of our country that this issue has received such close attention, both in the parliamentary progress of this Bill and in the discussions that preceded it. I go on to consider the background. Beyond doubt, we face threats made all too credible by what was perpetrated in London on 7/7, what was attempted at Glasgow airport and what, earlier, had happened in the United States on a scale never previously imagined. We also know that other plots with horrifying objectives and capabilities, like those planned for Heathrow, would in all probability have succeeded, had it not been for great skill on the part of those who look after our safety and, perhaps, a measure of good luck. It would not have been irrational if all this had produced an overwhelming demand from the public that we forgo what might be seen as the forensic niceties of fairness, and keep terrorist suspects in custody without charge for as long as it takes. This has not happened, due to the steadiness of people in this country and their invaluable gut feeling that their freedom is precious and an inheritance to be jealously guarded. In Parliament, too, we should demonstrate these qualities. I also reflect that, undoubtedly, the easier course for Parliament now is to support this, the ““tough on terrorism”” extension. No one could sensibly call that irrational either, for it plays not least to the powerful argument, never more movingly expressed than by victims, that there is no freedom without safety. The rights of victims have been tellingly alluded to by the noble Lord, Lord Brett, who has just spoken. In thinking about the choices that face us, my starting point is that freedom from arbitrary detention, secured as it is by the venerable remedy of habeas corpus, lies at the very heart of what makes us free. I very much agree with my noble friend Lord Sheikh about this. In recent years we have thought it right to nibble at the application of that principle, and to do so with increasing appetite. The present maximum of 28 days’ detention without charge is four times longer than the seven days put in place as recently as 2000. Indeed, my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern reminded us that we talked about the difference between four and eight hours in 1979. Now it is proposed to increase this limit of 28 days to six weeks, which is half as much again. It has been pointed out that this gives a total equivalent to a sentence of three months’ immediate custody. This surely warrants proof of necessity if it is to be accepted. I recall—and I hope everybody will read—the powerful speech by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith. That proof of necessity is lacking. Before such an increase was proposed, I would have expected the need for it to be common ground among informed opinion, yet the DPP, the professional head of the Crown Prosecution Service, told the Commons Public Bill Committee, "““we were very well placed to make that judgment””—" that is to say, whether there is enough evidence to charge—and that, "““our experience is that we have managed comfortably with 28 days, and have therefore not asked for an increase””." He made it clear that what he said extended to, "““even … the most extraordinarily complex terrorism offences””. —[Official Report, Commons, Counter-Terrorism Bill Committee, 22/4/08; col. 58.]" The noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, recited the list of distinguished ex-officeholders to oppose this extension on that ground among others. If the test of necessity is failed, so is the test that the provision should not be counterproductive. I think it is counterproductive in three respects. First, as the noble Lord, Lord Dear, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford and, perhaps most tellingly, the noble Lord, Lord Condon, said, this proposal will add predictably to disaffection in the Muslim communities in particular. The Islamist terrorist should not be fed with this kind of encouragement. Secondly—I do not think that this point has been made before—just as internment in Northern Ireland in the 1970s put us on the back foot and encouraged the violence we were resisting, so this proposal will predictably harm us. Thirdly, nibbling away at the principle of habeas corpus without proof of necessity is a proclivity to which all Governments are regrettably prone. It is dangerous, and this precedent will make it harder to resist in future. I hope we shall not be had by the so-called concession of requiring parliamentary approval; in practice it will prove worthless, like the other concessions so tellingly criticised by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Steyn. This proposal is dangerous in principle, damaging in practice and has not been shown to be needed. I hope your Lordships will take the harder rather than the easier course and will reject it.