We do not yet know on how many occasions the power will be exercised. I suspect that a vast number of passports will not be seized, but we cannot anticipate that. According to the Government’s explanatory notes,
“500 individuals of interest to the police…have travelled from the UK to Syria…since the start of the conflict.”
That has happened over the past 18 months to three years. The number of individuals travelling out of the UK who may be of interest might be small, but that does not mean that they should not have the right of appeal because, as I have said, mistakes can be made.
I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for North Down (Lady Hermon).