My Lords, I support the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. This amendment derives from the work of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in scrutinising the Bill. We took evidence from a number of people, including the independent reviewer. It was his recommendation about the major gaps in his function which should be filled which led to the creation of this amendment. I did not put my name to it to lead it because, in my innocence, I thought that there was a possibility that we might get to it earlier in the evening when I would be engaged in a committee. I have much to learn about your Lordships’ House.
As the noble Lord, Lord Ashton, rightly says, the independent reviewer had identified these major gaps. The Government have also accepted and recognised those gaps. I think that the independent reviewer has been looking at the whole architecture of counterterrorist legislation and has tried to ensure that there is—I do not like to use the word holistic—a complete, effective and standard-based approach to the review, which I do not think is provided by individual case-by-case judicial proceedings.
The opportunity here is simple and it would not add a great deal to the work of the independent reviewer were the Government to consider again this amendment. As the Minister has said, the office of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation is very highly respected in the country. I have worked very closely with some of the predecessors of David Anderson QC and I know how very significant that work is.
We are just asking for two issues to be moved into the remit of the independent reviewer under this amendment. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has said, the first concerns Part 2 of the Justice and Security Act 2013, which deals with closed material
procedures. Those procedures apply in litigation, which very often is litigation that is seeking compensation in claims against the Government and other authorities, and where there is a problem that there is material the disclosure of which will be damaging to the interests of national security.
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Your Lordships will undoubtedly remember the robust and difficult debates we had in this House not long ago as we moved to the introduction of those procedures and the concerns that were articulated about the application of the rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Act was passed with that important counterterrorist provision that enables protection for and defence of government cases, which is what it is really all about. The other provisions on immigration and nationality law are there only to the extent that they are used for counterterrorist purposes. The amendment would not create any additional national security or significant funding issues and would complement and further inform the work done by the independent reviewer. As the Minister said, it would provide some welcome accountability for the significant powers given to the authorities under this legislation and allow the Government to give reassurances to the public such as those articulated by the noble Lord, Lord Ashton.
The noble Lord referred to the various forms of review for the legislation. I will not go through them one at a time, your Lordships will be pleased to hear, but the Joint Committee on Human Rights, in the absence of any review of closed material procedures, was not satisfied that there is sufficient oversight. Mr Anderson said that he needed a junior. On the board he will probably get lots of juniors to help him but the fact remains that he has said, and continues to say, that oversight of Part 2 of the Justice and Security Act, in particular, is important. I ask the Minister to think about this again.
I am pleased to see that the Minister has recognised the independent reviewer’s need for additional resources. I am sure that if he were to amend his Amendment 16 to include our Amendment 16A it would not require many additional resources.