Counter-Terrorism Bill

Amendments Nos. 131 and 137 to 141 are all concerned with ensuring that a controlee has the right to a fair trial accorded to him under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. As noble Lords will be aware, this issue has been considered at length, including extensively by the courts. Indeed the House of Lords handed down a series of judgments on control orders in October 2007, one of which, MB, already referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, dealt explicitly with the right to a fair trial. In MB, the Law Lords did not say that any control order case before them had breached the right to a fair trial. But the majority view was that, in rare cases, the provisions in the 2005 Act might lead to a breach of Article 6. The Law Lords therefore applied Section 3 of the Human Rights Act to make the 2005 Act compatible with Article 6 in all cases. The Law Lords also concluded that the High Court should consider compatibility with Article 6 on a case-by-case basis. The cases before the Law Lords on this issue were referred back to the High Court. As a result of the MB judgment, the 2005 Act is fully compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. No further changes were required by the Law Lords. That sets the context for our discussion of these amendments. In broad terms, the Government do not think that second guessing or ignoring the Law Lords’ judgment, as this group of amendments seeks to do, is either necessary or desirable.