Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

I do not want to take a single word away from the opportunity that we will have to debate this legislation at more length. The right hon. Gentleman makes a good point to show why the House needs some time to debate our proposed transposition of the Orders in Council, on which we are relying, into primary legislation. These are exactly the kinds of debates that we need to test. The only point that I should make this afternoon is that the judicial review test is the norm in a number of other national security contexts and courts have demonstrated readily that it can be adapted to ensure an appropriately robust level of scrutiny of ministerial decisions. Let us return to the final question of a sunset clause. If, as I hope, the House agrees this legislation over the two days, it will need to turn its mind to considering the right procedures for debating the full legislation in order to tease out some of the questions that have just been posed. This legislation equips the Executive with strong powers and I could not be confident that, given the looming elections and recesses, this job of scrutiny could be safely dispatched and a full Bill could be taken through both Houses before 31 July 2010—the date that I believe was proposed by the Liberal Democrats. We are therefore asking for a sunset clause of 31 December, in order to ensure that the draft Bill, published last week, is debated in full. In conclusion, in these times of severe threat to our national security we cannot afford to fail to take the necessary steps to disarm terrorists or to disarm them of their financial power. Without primary legislation of the kind before the House, we will leave gaps in our defences that will give flexibility and capability to people who intend serious harm to the British public. The Bill provides for the safeguards for the citizen set out in the orders to remain in place. Those safeguards, I would argue, are tried and tested defences against the misuse of power by the Executive. At the same time, the Bill will provide Parliament with the proper time needed to consider and debate permanent legislation in full and I therefore commend the Bill to the House.