UK Parliament / Open data

Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill

My Lords, I shall make a few very brief comments in supporting my noble friend Lord King. It is not right that we should replay the whole of the debate in Committee.

The first is that, as I understand it, the Government acknowledge—and by that I mean the whole of the Government—that there is a gap in the facilities which are necessary for the proper prevention and detection of terrorism. I understand it to be acknowledged by the whole Government that that gap is recognised as being in the field of communications data. The issue is what should be used to fill that gap. I am very disappointed, if I may say so with great respect to my noble friend the Minister, in the response—or rather, the lack of response—that has been given to last week’s debate in Committee. I say that for this reason.

My understanding—following the committee so ably chaired by my noble friend Lord Blencathra—is that, following severe criticism by his committee of the

communications data Bill, from which these amendments are derived, though not copied exactly, a further draft Bill was prepared. We were told last week that that further draft Bill was shown to my noble friend Lord Blencathra, and to another member of his committee, the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, whom I am delighted to see in his place. The judgment made by my noble friend and the noble Lord was that nobody could decently describe the draft amended Bill as a snoopers’ charter at all, and that it went 95% of the way towards meeting the need. One derives from that that it was recognised as a good Bill which met almost all the requirements set out in its criticism by my noble friend’s committee.

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Last week, we asked the Government to provide us with a copy of that draft Bill, but that has been refused—not in the bluntest “we refuse” terms but in simply avoiding providing us with it. Had we been provided with that draft Bill, my noble friend Lord King and the noble Lord, Lord West, along with the noble Lord, Lord Blair, would have been at least 95% certain—the same percentage—of tabling an amendment that contained the provisions of that draft Bill.

The most engaging part of the speech by my noble friend Lord King was his unexpected plea of guilty to making promises, as a Minister in a Conservative Party manifesto, which were not kept. However, in saying that, he illustrated the uncertainty of waiting until after a general election, particularly one that has such an uncertain outcome, before setting off down the road of legislation on this issue. We could be waiting a very long time before this important gap is filled. So I respectfully ask the Minister to explain to the House why concerned Members who have identified an acknowledged gap have not been vouchsafed a copy of the good Bill, which we would have put down as an amendment. Logically, if we had been provided with that text, we would have expected all parties in this House to support it, unless there were some cheap political points to be made out of not doing so.

The amendment that we have tabled has distilled all the necessary elements from the previous communications data Bill, although we acknowledge that it could be improved—particularly if we were given the text to which I referred. We have added the sunset clause and the provisions relating to affirmative orders to which my noble friend Lord King referred earlier.

The Government should really reflect once again on this matter. The failure to fill this gap is a risk to national security—and national security is not an empty phrase. The meaning of national security to the people of this country is that it is the rolled-up rights of those 60 million people not to be the victims of terrorism in our streets. It is the duty of government to protect national security, as the Prime Minister has acknowledged on many occasions. So I say to my noble friend, please do not take a completely unnecessary risk with national security by failing to provide the text that ought to be acceptable to all parties.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
759 cc494-5 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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