Counter-Terrorism Bill

moved Amendment No. 48E: 48E: After Clause 89, insert the following new Clause— ““Intercept evidence (1) The Secretary of State shall, within 3 months of Royal Assent, report on the progress of the implementation committee set up following the Privy Council Review of intercept as evidence. (2) The Secretary of State shall, within 6 months of the report of the implementation committee, bring forward legislation to implement the recommendations of the Privy Council Review of intercept as evidence.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this amendment is about intercept evidence and the Chilcot report. This morning, the Minister placed in the Library of the House—literally at the 11th hour—a copy of the work programme that we had requested on the work of the implementation team that has followed the Chilcot review. The Minister gave an undertaking in Committee to do that. I think that it is fair to say that we presupposed from that undertaking that it would be done in useful time. I do not think that 11 o’clock today is in useful time. Because the document has come so late, we have not had a chance to study it properly, let alone develop any very detailed view on it. However, a perusal of it shows that we need to be rather more specific in requests that we make in future. The Government have interpreted the words ““work programme”” extraordinarily loosely. They have put forward a list of tasks; there is no assessment in that list of tasks of how the Government or those who are charged with studying implementation are getting on and there is no timetable for completion. When one reads that list of tasks, it is evident that allowing the use of intercept evidence does not appear to have any priority for the Government. There is no sense of urgency in the document. One is left with the impression, as one turns over the pages, that implementation study could go on for a very long time; indeed, I do not have confidence that there might ever be implementation. I remind the House that the Chilcot report recommended in favour of the use of intercept as evidence and gave the Government the template of PII Plus. On the fourth day in Committee, I asked the Minister to confirm that there was a willingness and desire across government to use intercept as evidence. The Minister did not really respond to the point; instead, he made quite a lot of the difficulties. I remind the House of the nature of this amendment. It asks two simple things: that the Government should report on progress within three months of Royal Assent, which is not a very onerous task, and that, within six months, they should ““bring forward legislation””. I do not think that it is unreasonable to expect that, 18 months after the Chilcot committee reported, the implementation committee should have been able to complete its work so that legislation could be brought forward. I have two points. First, I am not reassured by the document that we have been given that work is progressing. We have not been told that it is progressing; as I said, we have been given a list—quite a long list—of tasks. Secondly, time is going on and my amendment would be very unconstraining on the Government—it is very reasonable. I very much hope that the Government will feel able to accept it. I beg to move.