Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

This has been an interesting debate on an issue which—as the debate has revealed—is difficult and significant. I welcome the Conservatives' support for the Bill, and hope that the Liberal Democrats will support it as well, given the severe consequences to national security—described so eloquently by my right hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Jacqui Smith)—if it is not passed. The threat to the United Kingdom today from international terrorism is real and significant. We know that terrorists need finance to carry out attacks. As we have seen, the cost need not be great, but terrorists also need finance to maintain their infrastructure, for training, equipment and recruitment, and to promote their ideology. Their capabilities are severely constrained if they have no access to funds. Over the years, the asset-freezing regime has proved to be a valuable tool for disrupting and preventing terrorist financing. Our aim is to prevent a gap in the asset-freezing regime, and to ensure that frozen funds cannot be unfrozen and diverted and used tor terrorist purposes and that suspected terrorists do not gain free access to the United Kingdom's system. We consider it necessary to the UK's national security to act swiftly to maintain the asset-freezing regime under Orders in Council on a temporary basis while we table further legislation introducing a terrorist asset-freezing regime to primary legislation, allowing time for Parliament to scrutinise our proposals fully. I welcomed the many and varied points raised by Members, and, in the time available, I shall do my utmost to address them. Let me deal with the major points first. Many Members asked why primary legislation had not frozen the assets at the outset. Orders in Council made under the United Nations Act have proved an accepted way for successive Governments, regardless of party, to give effect to UN Security Council resolutions. The intention of the provision is to ensure that the UK can swiftly implement its UN obligations in respect of matters affecting international peace and security. By making Orders in Council under the UN Act, we were able to establish our terrorist asset-freezing regime in law within 12 days of UN Security Council Resolution 1373. I am sure Members will understand why rapid action was necessary to deal with terrorist finance in the weeks after 9/11. We continued to believe that the use of Orders in Council under the UN Act was the right approach, and was consistent with the way in which previous Governments had given effect to UN Security Council resolutions. Some Members—including the hon. Members for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) and for Poole (Mr. Syms)—have asked why we did not use primary legislation once we knew, after the High Court ruling in 2008, that the orders were potentially vulnerable. We concluded that it was right to see the legal process through to the end, in order to be clear about the proper use of the UN Act and the way in which it applied to the orders in question.