Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

The answer to the hon. Gentleman is simple. The Supreme Court said that it was willing to consider a stay, but its judgment on Thursday was that it was unprepared to grant that stay. Therefore, the Government had to ensure that assets already frozen under the Terrorism Act—the orders that had effectively been quashed— remained frozen. That gives the House the opportunity to consider in more detail and depth the provisions of the orders that we will seek to put into primary legislation in a much longer period. That debate will produce a better piece of legislation at the end of it. If passed, the Bill will restore the UK's terrorist asset-freezing regime in primary legislation, but only as a stop-gap. It will allow the House to scrutinise our proposals while eliminating any risk of a gap in our asset-freezing regime. I would like to outline briefly the Bill's effects, before touching on some of the questions around safeguards. The Bill seeks to maintain the Treasury's power under the Orders in Council to designate persons if they meet both required conditions of the legal test: first, reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in terrorist activity; and secondly; that the designation is necessary for public protection. The effect of a designation is: to forbid dealing with a designated person's funds and economic resources; to forbid making funds or economic resources available to such persons; and to forbid funds or economic resources being made available to a person when the designated person will obtain significant financial benefit. The orders will continue to provide for licences to permit access to funds and to ameliorate the effect of the sanctions. The Treasury will remain open to the full range of legal challenge of its asset-freezing decisions. However, the Bill seeks retrospective provision for the legal authority for banks and any other institution to maintain existing freezes between the date of the Supreme Court judgment and Royal Assent.