Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Bill [Lords]
15th November 2010
Dr Hywel Francis (Aberavon) (Lab) rose-
Mr Hanson: I am pleased to see that the Chairman of the Joint Committee is in the Chamber and I will certainly give way to him.
Dr Francis: I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way and for his warm words of support for our report. Can he elaborate on why he would not necessarily support our proposed amendments?
Mr Hanson: My hon. Friend has raised a number of issues in the report, and those need to be examined. However, regarding the three points that I have mentioned-including a higher standard of proof-it is my view that the key issue for the Government and the Opposition is to ensure that we take action to stem the flow of funds to terrorists. That means that there are potentially some issues whereby that lower standard of proof would achieve that objective and is still open, as the Minister himself said, to challenge and review. On closed material, very often information crosses Ministers' desks-I was the Minister with responsibility for policing and terrorism in the previous Government-that they are aware of and act upon, but the disclosure of which could potentially compromise the security of the United Kingdom.
There is a debate to be had-I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Dr Francis) for raising this point-about who the reviewer of this legislation is accountable to. In the Joint Committee's report, he suggests that the reviewer should be accountable to Parliament rather than Government. We currently have a reviewer of terrorist legislation that is independent of Government but accountable to the Home Office.
We need to have some clarity on those issues, and I think that they are worthy of debate. I am not closing the book on any of them, but I do not wish to come to final conclusions today based on the Joint Committee report, which was produced only over the weekend.
