Counter-Terrorism Bill

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, for his support and for his kind words. Both this House and the other place have expressed a strong desire to debate the inquest provisions in Part 6, and one got a flavour of that here today. That will now happen in the context of the wider reform of the coronial system; and that is probably the correct way of doing it. Consequently, that is why we are seeking to remove Clauses 77 to 79 and Clause 81 from the Bill and to have that debate when we go forward with the reform of the coroner system. That will provide both Houses with an appropriate context in which to consider all the issues that they are seeking to meet across the totality of the change. The noble Lord, Lord Lester, mentioned the JCHR points. If the Explanatory Notes are not up to speed in their coverage of some of the issues to do with human rights in Article 2, we will absolutely make sure that happens when it comes up for review in the totality of the coroners Bill. I was not aware that they were so poor; I will look into that to see what the problem was. The noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy, asked specifically about the position in Scotland, which apparently uses a system of fatal accident inquiries rather than coronial inquests. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Cullen, is currently reviewing the law and the greater use of those inquiries, and he is due to report next year. That is the position as I have had it reported to me from the Box, but I have no detailed knowledge of that. I oppose that Clauses 77 to 79 and 81 stand part of the Bill, but I should like to speak to Clause 80 standing as part of the Bill. This is a technical provision to correct an anomaly in the procedure established for inquiries under the Inquiries Act 2005. At present, Section 18(7) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act—RIPA—permits intercept material to be disclosed to the panel of an inquiry alone only where the exceptional circumstances of the case make the disclosure essential to enable the inquiry to fulfil its terms of reference. Section 18(7) does not permit intercept material to be disclosed to the person appointed as counsel to the inquiry. That means that the panel can currently share all of the sensitive material that it receives with counsel to the inquiry, apart from intercept material, because the RIPA provision covering inquiry panels does not also include their own counsel. Clause 80 is intended to correct that anomaly, so that the panel may order disclosure of intercept material to the person appointed as counsel to the inquiry where the exceptional circumstances of the case make the disclosure essential to enable the inquiry to fulfil its terms of reference. That will enable counsel to the inquiry to advise the panel on all sensitive material, rather than just all sensitive material other than intercept. The proposals will operate in a very limited number of cases and do not undermine the current level of secrecy around intercept material. As such secrecy is maintained, the proposal does not undermine in any way the current prohibition on the use of intercept material in prosecutions, which would of necessity require disclosure of the material to the defendant personally. Clause 80 will ensure that the panel and counsel to an inquiry can always have the information that they need to ensure that the inquiry can fulfil its role, whatever the source of that information on those very exceptional circumstances.