Coroners and Justice Bill

In a sense, my hon. Friend makes my point. There is potential for any tribunal—with a small "t"—to go into camera. In many cases, that provides the answer. For sure, there are long-established rules so that in cases where human intelligence is involved evidence can be given by the staff of the security and intelligence agencies from behind screens—or otherwise their identities can be withheld. In most cases, that is satisfactory. There is, however, a tiny number of cases—there is one we know of at the moment; only one—for which the central evidence arises from intercept. There is a grave anxiety—this is a central issue in the whole question of the disclosure of intercept—that if that evidence were made available as intercept transcriptions in closed court, it would have to be made available to those present, including many who had not been cleared for these purposes. This issue was examined in great detail by the Chilcot inquiry. As I will explain, it came forward with nine conditions in which intercept material in our environment —not in other people's environments—could be made available to the court. I am glad to see in their places today the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) and the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Sir Alan Beith), both of whom sat on the Chilcot inquiry and the subsequent advisory panel, so they know a huge amount about this issue.