Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

I will be fairly brief, because I know my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer) and my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr. Malins) want to speak and the winding-up speeches will start in about half an hour. I begin by repeating what I said in the debate on the timetable motion: I accept that the Bill must pass and that it would be very unsatisfactory not to have such legislation in place, but I recognise that fact with an extremely heavy heart, because I deplore the process and what we are about to do. The Bill re-enacts the statutory instruments that were much criticised by the Supreme Court. We have been reminded by a number of right hon. and hon. Members as to the trenchancy of the criticisms of those orders made by, for example, Lord Hope. The 2006 order went through without any parliamentary scrutiny at all. That is an extremely bad thing. We were told by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury that that was permitted by the 1946 Act, but that is not the view of Lord Hope, who said that that measure did not justify the insertion of the reasonable suspicion test. In any event, however, while the Act might have so permitted, it certainly did not require the passage of such measures by way of secondary legislation. What in fact we are doing today is simply re-enacting in primary legislation what was previously in secondary legislation that was deemed offensive in almost all its particulars by the Supreme Court. It is worth reminding oneself of the scope of the 2006 order, which is being replicated in primary legislation. In the first place, the order creates quite serious criminal offences, which are punishable by a maximum of seven years. That is not trivial. Secondly and differently, to take up the point made by the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Mr. Gerrard), the designation of the person involved in terrorist activity simply involves the reasonable suspicion test, which is a very low standard of proof. In addition, there is no way of challenging that designation outside the judicial review mechanism. As I think everyone but the Chief Secretary recognises, the judicial review mechanism provides a very limited form of review. One matter of concern to me is that the draft Bill that the House may be asked to consider in due course relies on judicial review as the only safeguard. I agree very strongly with the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), and indeed all others who have spoken, that there needs to be some way of reviewing the issue on the merits. The 2004 Joint Committee report echoes that point. Moreover, the freezing orders are extraordinarily wide in scope. So far as I am aware, having looked at both the draft Bill and the 2006 order, there is, aside from judicial review, absolutely no way in which the scope of the freezing order can be impugned. I do not think that there is any good reason why proper safeguards should not have been written into the Bill. In fact, there are a number of models on which one could have drawn—pick them off the shelf!. The special counsel procedure in control orders is a case in point. I very much dislike that process, but it is better than nothing. There is no point in the Government's arguing, ““Well, we couldn't do that, because we thought we were going to win the case in the Supreme Court.”” That shows that they were jolly badly advised, because they did not win. Not only did they not win, but as the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) said, the orders were criticised with remarkable robustness by people whose role in life is generally to understate rather than overstate their views. The Government lost not only for legalistic reasons, but for reasons of substance: the Supreme Court thought that the powers given were too draconian. That was also the view expressed in the 2001 report under the chairmanship of my right hon. and noble Friend Lord Newton of Braintree of the predecessors of the hon. Member for Hendon on the Joint Committee on Human Rights in 2004. The Government have been told time and again that such measures ought to be in primary legislation, not only because primary legislation is the proper vehicle, but because that process enables the House and others properly to review what is proper. On any view, therefore, what we are doing today is draconian. The measure will last for a year or so, and the sunset clause is in place, which I welcome. I hope that my hon. Friends will forgive me if I dissent from them slightly, but I think that a March sunset is probably too soon, because this is a difficult area of law. I agree with whoever said that he did not want to see our rushing through new legislation that has not properly been considered. I am inclined to think, with some hesitation, that March is too soon, and that even July is too soon. My disposition, with a heavy heart, is to go for the timing in the sunset clause. I will be happy to end my speech after this point, because I know that my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal and my hon. Friend the Member for Woking want to speak. We are doing something that is pretty draconian. There is an essential rule in life that one must observe if one is a parliamentarian: all power given away is always, on occasion, abused. That is certain. From that follow two very important consequences. First, one gives away the minimum of power possible to the officers of the state. Secondly, where one must give power away, one must restrict the exercise of that power with proper constraints, reviews and appeals. Under this Bill we are falling foul of both propositions, and I deeply regret that fact.