Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

That is clearly the case, and that is why I am worried about the use of reasonable suspicion in imposing sanctions on individuals. We could be dealing with people about whom, yes, there might be a suspicion, but there is no proof. That is an important distinction. In dealing with the question of reasonable suspicion, the Supreme Court had quite a lot to say. Lord Hope said that Security Council resolution 1373 was not phrased in terms of reasonable suspicion. He said that it referred to persons who"““commit, or attempt to commit, terrorist acts””." He said that transposition of the direction into domestic law raised questions about what was necessary or expedient. He clearly said:"““It was not necessary to introduce the reasonable suspicion test in order to reproduce what the Security Council resolution requires.””" That was echoed in comments made by the other Supreme Court judges. The Bill will bring in temporary legislation that will be in place for a few months at most. The draft Bill, which has been published, will produce more permanent legislation. We are not here this evening to debate the draft Bill, but it is important that it should be debated in great detail at the appropriate time, and that the issues that we have debated to some degree today—reasonable suspicion, safeguards and the appeals system, for example—should be thoroughly considered when the draft Bill is debated. This Bill will clearly go through this evening, but I would not want it to be followed by a rush to permanent legislation. That is what would happen if we tried to get the legislation in place by 31 March. Whatever permanent legislation we introduce must be thoroughly examined. It has been pointed out endlessly today that one of the failings of the process has been that the orders were never scrutinised by Parliament in the first place. We should not make a similar mistake when introducing the permanent legislation that will follow these measures. We should not try to push it through in a hurry without proper pre-legislative scrutiny, without proper examination by a Bill Committee, or without a decent debate on Report and in the other place. It is important to include a sunset clause in the Bill. Legislation such as this, which does virtually nothing except overturn a Supreme Court ruling—it is retrospective legislation in many ways—must be put in place only on a temporary basis. It is also important that the House should leave itself reasonable time to get the permanent legislation in place. I would certainly not be happy with any attempt to rush it through before 31 March, because that would not give us enough time. Nor am I convinced that legislation of this nature would best be dealt with in the first weeks of a new Parliament. I am therefore not unhappy with the sunset clause as it stands, because it is desperately important to give this whole matter the thorough examination that it simply has not had so far.