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8.3 pm
Mr. Michael Howard (Folkestone and Hythe): My right hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Mr. King) made several powerful points, with which I agree and which I shall not repeat. The Home Secretary told the House last night that the provisions are a serious part of the armoury against terrorism. As I was responsible for their introduction, the House will be unsurprised to hear that I agree. I welcome their restoration to the statute book, and I thank the Home Secretary for responding to my express invitation to reconsider the timetable that he had originally had in mind for putting the powers back where they belong and where they represent a serious weapon against terrorism.
I have one point to make about timing, which my right hon. Friend analysed in detail. I intend no excessive loyalty to my former Department in saying that, in the timetable provided by the Home Secretary, the 17 days that it took the Law Officers to respond to the Home Office request for advice shriek for our attention. That is an astonishing period, and I hope that the Home Secretary will discuss that point in his reply.
I listened with great interest to the points put to the Home Secretary by his right hon. and hon. Friends. Indeed, when he made a point of referring with some
emphasis to the official Opposition, I was not at all sure whether he was using that term to distinguish us from the Liberal Democrats or from those behind him. Those points and the response that the Home Secretary made to them illustrate the constitutional mess that one gets into if one introduces the kind of legislation that the Home Secretary has introduced in the form of the Human Rights Act 1998. I regret to say that I believe that the country as a whole, and perhaps even the Government, will live to regret the day when they decided to put that legislation before the House.
Yesterday, I expressed some sympathy for the Home Secretary's predicament. I express further sympathy with him today for the disputes that have arisen between him and the judiciary. My sympathy will not do him any good at all, but he will understand that I very much feel for him as he makes his way. The Lord Chief Justice has ruled against him. He is now in the process of appealing to a higher court. It all has an incredibly familiar ring about it, but I am on the Home Secretary's side. It will not do him any good at all, but I wish him well in all those battles.
Audrey Wise (Preston):
I know that the right hon. and learned Gentleman is enjoying this enormously, but it might do no harm to remind him that some of us on the Labour Benches remember the considerable difficulties that he got into with the law on lots of occasions as Home Secretary. So, a little humility would not come amiss.
Mr. Howard:
I rather thought that that was the point that I was making. I am sorry if it escaped the hon. Lady.
Mr. Peter Brooke (Cities of London and Westminster):
I shall not rise to the level of my right hon. Friends who have preceded me in speaking from the Opposition Benches, but I will say a brief word. I can certainly declare an interest. For ministerial sins of omission and commission, I have never come remotely near being a member of the Home Secretary's club, although I have some vicarious experience. I remember my father's experiences and I certainly feel sympathy for the Home Secretary in the predicament in which he has found himself.
These are serious matters. There was a trivial example in yesterday's proceedings of how a slip of the tongue can get us into difficulties. The Home Secretary, in response to the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith), said of the 1996 Act:
In terms of sections 16A and 16B, I have a question about the police powers on the statute book that would have protected us during the period since 22 March 1998. I have searched both what the Home Secretary said yesterday and what the Leader of the House said yesterday evening and I cannot detect any precise reference. I realise that lawyers who have participated in the debate may know precisely what powers would have been substituted for sections 16A and 16B, but it would be helpful for the purposes of historians to have on the record what they would have been.
On sections 16C and 16D, there was an exchange at column 217 on 2 April 1996 in discussing the Prevention of Terrorism (Additional Powers) Act 1996 in which my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) acknowledged to the hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) that there were powers under common law on cordons and parking restrictions, and that the legislation that we were passing was simply intended to strengthen them.
I have an incidental question that seems relevant, given that the powers that we are reviving provide for 14 days initially, with a power for a 14-day extension for cordons and, I think, parking restrictions. It would be interesting to know the longest period for which the powers were required on the 86 occasions that the legislation has been used since 22 March.
I have a minor complaint that is not remotely worthy of a point of order. Events such as those with which we have been dealing in the past 24 hours highlight the utility of the library immediately behind me in the No Lobby, which contains Hansards and Bills. I make no complaint, and I do not know who has offended by removing them, but all the Bills for 1996 are absent from the No Lobby. I understand that the sessional index for 1996-97 has not yet been printed but those for 1994-95 and 1995-96 are absent. Although they are available in other parts of the Palace, it slows things down if we cannot make use of them in trying to research something in a short space of time. It is because of their absence that I ask the Home Secretary one remaining question on sections 16C and 16D, which are now Part IVB.
The hon. Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay), at the time of the 1996 Act, asked about the royal parks police. Section 5 of the 1996 Act, which we are renewing today, specifies that the ranks that can trigger a cordon as
Mr. Straw:
I will seek to answer the points that have been raised as best I can. I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster
I shall go through the main points. First, the right hon. Members for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) and for Bridgwater (Mr. King) asked about the time taken to bring the matter before the House. It is obviously a serious matter and we dealt with it as quickly as we could. Many articles make assertions. In the journal in question, the author of the article hit the bull's-eye but it is not a learned journal with the highest reputation. It is not avidly read on a wide scale, even by criminal law practitioners, so much so that the lawyers for the defendants in the case never took that point at all. Had they done so, the matter would probably have been resolved by the courts, rather than by this place.
Mr. Howard:
Did the Home Secretary take the elementary precaution of checking that the editor of the publication is not one of his constituents?
Mr. Straw:
I can guarantee that. I know all my constituents; they are engaged in higher occupations.
Many articles make many assertions. This article was drawn to the attention of the Law Officers; the member of that Department who read it made the judgment that it raised a serious point. It then came to the Home Office and my officials considered it with care. It was then considered by the Law Officers with great care. The right hon. Member for Bridgwater asked for details. For reasons that he will fully understand, such detail is not normally given about the work of the Law Officers. However, such was the care taken that the Law Officers consulted not one experienced counsel, but two separate counsel about the matter, because they--and we--wanted to be as certain as possible that the opinion that those parts of the Act were inoperative was accurate.
When issues arise, the Law Officers and departmental legal advisers may take an initial view and the matter goes to counsel for careful opinion. They might then arrive at a view that is different from that which was taken originally. There would then be nothing to bring before the House. That could easily have been true in this case. We had to achieve a balance--I think that the balance was right, but I understand the anxiety of the right hon. Member for Bridgwater--between dealing with the matter as quickly as possible and not dealing with it in haste and arriving at a judgment that turned out to be inaccurate. The House would not have thanked us if, on the basis of that article, we had rushed in with an inadequate consideration of what may be a very discrete issue, but one that is also rather complicated. It might have turned out that we had wasted everyone's time because we had acted on poor advice. I wanted to be certain that the advice that we received was robust. Having received that advice, we did everything necessary in order to come back to the House as quickly as possible.
"That Act introduced changes in respect of sections 16C and 16D in part IVB of the Act, as opposed to part IVA, which relates to cordons and parking restrictions."--[Official Report, 23 June 1999; Vol. 333, c. 1174.]
He clearly meant part IVB of the Act, which relates to cordons and parking restrictions, as opposed to part IVA, but the wording that he used eluded the eye of whichever
member of his private office was sent to check the record. Therefore, we are left with a thing that is mildly misleading in the record.
"any police officer of or above the rank of commander of the metropolitan police, as respects the metropolitan police district".
The same provision is made in respect of the City of London police and it also specifies
"any police officer of or above the rank of assistant chief constable of a force maintained for any other police area".
Those powers can be renewed by an officer ranked as a superintendent or higher. What rank in the royal parks police is necessary? Such parks are exactly the sort of place where such a cordon or parking restrictions might be required.
8.13 pm
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