Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

My point is that there was not only significant legal advice that the 1946 Act was a legitimate ground for introducing Orders in Council in order to translate UN Security Council resolutions, but legal justification between October 2008 and the point at which the Supreme Court upheld once again those individual appeals. The idea that every time a piece of legislation—primary or secondary—faces a challenge in the courts, the Government should rush to Parliament to pass separate legislation in order to mitigate the challenge is ridiculous. If anybody would like to estimate the time that we would spend here legislating on that basis, they would find that none of us would get home on any night at all. As my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said, we continue to face a serious threat from terrorism; and, despite the hard work of our police and our security and intelligence agencies at home and abroad, recent events have demonstrated that the threat remains from the al-Qaeda leadership, their immediate associates, their affiliates throughout the world and from rogue individuals who espouse their view and ideology. The scope and nature of that threat mean that we need a broad approach to tackling it. With the rule of law and the protection of human rights at its heart, the first priority of any counter-terror strategy must be to catch and prosecute those responsible for planning, facilitating and carrying out attacks, and to take action through our courts. The almost 200 successful convictions since 2001 are evidence of our commitment to, and success in, pursuing that route. However, the threat is such that we should also use the broadest range of methods, including non-prosecution where necessary, to disrupt activity and make the UK as hostile as possible to terrorist planning and facilitation. An important element of that must be cutting the finance that funds attacks and networks. Terrorists need money to plan and carry out attacks, although, as my right hon. Friend identified, it is worrying how little an amount can cause terrible damage and loss of life. As he said, it is estimated that the 7/7 attacks on London cost £8,000. The improvised explosive devices that are used to attack our forces abroad can cost much less even than that. Terrorist organisations also need money to sustain networks and provide financial support to terrorists and their families. The sums are likely to be greater, but they provide for the infrastructure of terror. We need to ensure that those who radicalise individuals and peddle the ideology that supports terrorism are tackled as they raise the funds for such work. It is suggested that work to limit funding internationally is successfully hampering the work of al-Qaeda. That activity is welcome, but it shows how important action on terror financing can be. In recent years, that work has been scaled up throughout Government, involving the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the private sector. Work is in place to deter terrorists from using the financial system, to detect them when they do and to use financial tools to disrupt them. I understand that financial intelligence and investigation tools are used to support all counter-terrorist investigations, and we have excellent, specialist terrorist financial investigation capacity in this country. Asset freezing is only one element of that work, but it is important. As my right hon. Friend said, our asset-freezing regime is based on international recognition, through the UN, of its significance in helping to counter the terror threat. As we have heard, the UN maintains under Security Council resolution 1267 a list of individuals and entities connected to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Security Council resolution 1373, adopted in September 2001, broadened that approach, recognising that individual states needed to take action against those within their territories who funded terrorism, even if they were not on the UN-held list. Given the fragmented terror threat and the growing phenomenon of individuals who self-radicalise or act alone following radicalisation, the legislation before us seems an important and appropriate development of the asset-freezing regime. That may well explain, as my right hon. Friend and my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary have explained, why the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, which confines itself to restraints on terrorists or acts that have been inspired overseas, may be insufficient. Given the fragmented terror threat, it is not inconceivable that wholly domestically organised and determined terrorist threats and networks may be operating, and we need an asset-freezing tool to use against them, too. At the heart of the Supreme Court ruling was neither the principle of asset freezing nor even its practice in the UK, although the judges rightly commented on the onerous requirements, as other Members have said. At its heart was the translation of Security Council resolutions into UK law.