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The enterprise in Afghanistan is clearly exceedingly difficult. I remember my late lamented noble friend Lord Garden saying that it would indeed take 30 years. I hear what the noble Baroness says, but I have also seen the recent Oxfam reports that state that Afghanistan,
They point to the continued problems of the Afghan and international response lacking coherence, resources and resolve. Lack of government capacity at local level, widespread corruption, a legal system with major systemic weaknesses and widespread impunity for power holders are fuelling public dissatisfaction. Of course, there were moves to make my noble friend Lord Ashdown the UN co-ordinator there. The fact that that did not happen was a missed opportunity.
How does the noble Lord think that co-ordination can be improved? How can we ensure better protection of civilians and, in particular, actions by the international forces that do not make things worse in Afghanistan or Pakistan? Clearly, no settlement in Afghanistan is possible without the involvement of others in the region. The instability of Pakistan, especially in the current economic climate, is particularly worrying. Anyone who visits the region will be immediately aware of the links made with the Middle East.
The Queen’s Speech talks of pressing for a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. That is extremely welcome. I note that Tony Blair, now the quartet’s representative there, was yesterday arguing that Obama needed to seize this immediately on taking office, and he is surely right. It is reported that Blair has been shocked at the effect of the occupation on the economic prospects for the Palestinian state. I am surprised that he did not know that before, but it is good that it has come home now. This looks like a last chance and, as we know, for the future of both Israel and Palestine, a two-state solution must be engaged with seriousness. As Tony Blair said yesterday, there is nothing more important in relations between Islam and the West than sorting out this problem, so that Israel feels secure and the Palestinians have a state.
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The dire situation of those in Gaza should be immediately addressed. It should be recognised as collective punishment, although in a Written Answer to me only the other day the noble Lord avoided saying that. Surely it is time for the EU to press harder. The EU has made an enormous contribution to reconstruction around the world and it should have the authority to speak out. We believe that the EU is a power for good.
It is notable that only three years after the promises of Make Poverty History and the Commission for Africa, Africa gets not even the slightest mention in the Queen’s Speech. As cholera and anthrax hit Zimbabwe, the situation becomes even more dire, which had seemed impossible. Today we hear that the health system is breaking down. Zimbabwe has declared the cholera epidemic an emergency, but the MDC was not even allowed to attend the press conference at which this was announced. What hope does the noble Lord have of international pressure being brought to bear on SADC, the AU and the UN to force Mugabe to accept the will of the people of Zimbabwe? In the mean time, as this situation drags on and on, what can be done to alleviate suffering?
We welcome the fact that the noble Lord is so involved in developments in Zimbabwe, Sudan and the DRC. It is indeed excellent to see him bring his UN experience to bear on these problems. Perhaps he might report further on the DRC and negotiations there. As we saw in the debate last week, he clearly recognises the vital importance of cutting the economic roots of those fighting in the DRC, as in Zimbabwe. There has just been another report to the United Nations on the international companies inappropriately operating in the DRC. Does he have the details of the British companies? Will the Government pledge to do what they so feebly did not do before and take effective action against them? Overstretched as we are—I dispute what the noble Baroness said about overstretch in the military—it is not surprising that we can do little in terms of military support. Yet again, our commitment in Iraq has had its effect.
We have seen significant changes in Africa regarding improvements in governance and economic development, but they have shaky foundations. The challenges from climate change, the financial crisis and the world food crisis are more than sufficient to reverse this. When you see the rate of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, the possibility of cutbacks in aid, the likely decline in remittances and the precarious economic situation there, it does not take much to realise quite how progress is potentially undermined. As ever, it is the poorest people who suffer first, with women and children in the vanguard.
What will be the effect on Africa if it is China that makes the most of the West’s economic difficulties? Good governance has hardly been a priority for its activities in Africa—although we can hardly complain, given our own history. Even now in the food crisis, we see instances of Asian companies buying up huge tracts of land for their own markets. What will be the impact of that on the poorer developing countries?
Our economic crisis should have brought home what we surely already know: that something that happens in one place in our interconnected world can
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What themes came up in the terrible events in Mumbai, which the noble Lord, Lord Howell, mentioned? American, British and Israeli lives were targeted—although it was mostly Indians who were killed—by those whose ideology, it seems, links into acts elsewhere in the world: New York, Nairobi, London, Islamabad and Madrid. We know from what is happening in Afghanistan and the Middle East, as we knew from Northern Ireland, that one needs not only to counter such ideologies but to ensure that those who are ready targets for such radicalisation see themselves and their families as having a future that is fulfilled and prosperous and not as outsiders on the edge of things.
In our current economic crisis, the temptation might well be to turn inwards. Instead, we should surely recognise that what we do nationally and internationally will come back to help or haunt us long into the future.
Government Information
Statement
12.12 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall repeat a Statement made by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary entitled, “Investigation into unauthorised release of Government information”. The Statement is as follows.
“With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement on the current police investigation into the unauthorised release of government information.
As has been widely recognised across the House, there are some very important principles at stake in this matter: that no one should be above the law; that the police should have the operational independence to conduct their investigations without fear or favour; that Members of this House should be able to do their work and be able to hold the Government to account; and that the impartiality of the Civil Service should be protected. Members of this House will, of course, understand our obligation not to prejudice an ongoing police investigation, but I will be as helpful as I can in my Statement.
On 8 October 2008, following consultation with the Home Office, the Cabinet Office requested the assistance of the Metropolitan Police Service in investigating a series of leaks. The request was made by the Cabinet Office as it has ultimate responsibility for the security and integrity of the working of government. No Cabinet Office Minister was involved in the decision.
The request followed a number of internal Home Office leak inquiries which had not identified the source of the leaks. There was concern that an individual, or individuals, in the Home Office with access to sensitive material were prepared to leak that information.
Faced with what appeared to be the systematic leaking of classified information over a sustained period, given the damage that it was doing to the effective
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The sustained level of leaking that had already taken place clearly suggested that it could go on, would escalate, and that more information of greater sensitivity could leak. Since the request for police assistance was made, the Home Office has co-operated fully with the police investigation. A full list of relevant leaks, including those involving highly classified material, was passed to the police for their consideration.
As Acting Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, set out in his statement yesterday, after initial inquiries the Crown Prosecution Service was consulted. The police officers involved were satisfied that they had reasonable grounds to make an arrest of a junior Home Office civil servant.
On 17 November, I was informed by Sir David Normington that an arrest of a Home Office civil servant was likely in the next few days. On 19 November, the Home Office civil servant was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. On 27 November, the police arrested the honourable Member for Ashford on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office.
As the statement issued by Sir David Normington on 28 November made clear, he was informed by the police at about 1.45 pm on 27 November that a search was about to be conducted of the home and offices of a member of the Opposition Front Bench. Sir David was subsequently told that an arrest had been made. This was the first time that anyone in the Home Office was informed that a Member of this House was the subject of the police investigation.
I have made it clear that neither I nor any other government Minister knew until after the arrest of the honourable Member that he, or any other honourable Member, was the subject of a police investigation or was to be arrested. I hope that those who have asserted the contrary will now withdraw their claims. Let me be clear: even if I had been informed, I believe it would have been wholly inappropriate for me to seek to intervene in the operational decisions being taken by the police. I will not do that, and I should not do that.
On 1 December, I spoke to the Acting Commissioner to reassure myself that the investigation was being pursued diligently, sensitively and in a proportionate manner. Sir Paul informed me of his intention to set up a review of the handling of the case to date, which I welcomed. The following day he announced that Chief Constable Ian Johnston would conduct this review. In that telephone call with Sir Paul—as I have done previously, as I have done since, and as I will continue to do—I expressed my support for the operational independence of the police from political intervention.
No one in this House should doubt the sensitivity of that investigation, or the importance of the issues involved. I welcome your Statement yesterday, Mr Speaker, and your decision to set up a committee of seven
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I wholeheartedly support the right of every honourable Member to do their job, to hold the Government to account, and to make available information that is in the public interest, but the systematic leaking of government information raises issues that strike at the very heart of our system of governance. Such activity is not about merely creating political embarrassment, for myself or for any other Minister. Such activity threatens the respected role of the Civil Service in supporting our democracy in a politically impartial, honest and professional manner, and it drives a coach and horses through the Civil Service Code, which states that civil servants should act,
- “in a way which deserves and retains the confidence of Ministers, while at the same time ensuring that you will be able to establish the same relationship with those whom you may be required to serve in some future Government”.
All of us, on both sides of the House, have a right to expect that our vital role should be protected. We have a responsibility, too, to respect the law and uphold the proper workings of the Civil Service. I would be surprised—and indeed dismayed—if any honourable Member thought this was not the case.
I commend my Statement to the House”.
My Lords, that concludes the Statement.
12.18 pm
Baroness Hanham: My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Home Secretary’s Statement. It has taken a little while for her to make one, in the light of the inglorious events that have taken place in the name of her department, but I suppose that it is better to have one late than never.
I do not think that anybody would disagree with the four principles that the Home Secretary has identified. We heartily endorse her view that the police have no place in politics. It might be thought that this was a matter that largely affected only the other place—and, of course, it does, in that it was a Member of Parliament who found himself the subject of a police search on his office in the parliamentary estate as well as having his home and constituency premises done over. However, what happens in the other place is as relevant in this House, as both Houses are part of this bicameral Parliament and, therefore, should be subject to the same procedures and practices, one for the other. Therefore, this House is not a disinterested bystander.
The approach of those in authority in the other place to the prospect of an elected Member of Parliament’s office being taken over, not just by the Metropolitan Police, but by the counterterrorism police to boot, should surely have raised the most enormous concern. Should the immediate reaction not have been that a
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Can the Minister tell us what advice was taken either by the Speaker or the Serjeant at Arms from the highest legal sources, which are available to us in Parliament, as to the propriety of this raid? What details were given by the police to the House authorities to justify their seeking to take this unprecedented action? Why was a warrant, at least, not demanded before entry was permitted? We know that it was not. Do we know whether the police even had a warrant when they entered the honourable Member for Ashford’s home and constituency office? Do we know whether the police went to a magistrate to seek such authority? If so, were they refused, or did they simply act on their own? Do we know what information was given to the Crown Prosecution Service, if it was consulted, about the offences of the honourable Member? Did anybody think to ask by whose authority the police were acting, or is it now a sine qua non that if unusual inquiries are being made they can take place if the counterterrorism police are involved? Will this be the fig leaf which covers other actions?
The Minister is a Minister for counterterrorism. Could I ask him directly whether he believes that the involvement of the counterterrorism police in this action could be justified as part of their duties to protect the state from acts of extreme violence? Does the Minister know what aspect of the allegations made against my honourable friend could even remotely have been construed as posing a threat to this country, particularly as the Prime Minister told the House of Commons that the action against the honourable Member for Ashford concerned a matter of “national security”? Really, my Lords?
Does the Minister agree that the procedures followed in another place failed lamentably to uphold the independence of Parliament? Volumes of words of disbelief as to these events have been said and written in the past few days, but no light has been shed on this aspect. Perhaps the Minister can do so now.
These investigations started with the Home Office. It was known that opposition Members had commented on four—it was just four—disclosures reported in the media. The Minister will remember that at least one of those, the employment of illegal immigrants by the security industry, resulted in a Statement by the Home Secretary, which we also considered in this place. It was clearly a matter of public interest and clearly did not undermine the security of the country, but it was obviously of considerable embarrassment to the Government and probably inconvenient to the Home Office. However, causing inconvenience is not a breach of security or beyond the duties of a Member of Parliament. Indeed, one might say that the duty of Members in opposition, both this party and the Liberal Democrats, is to do precisely that: to cause the Government inconvenience, particularly when they are trying to hide things that they do not want other people to know.
Does the noble Lord understand the disastrous impression of our democracy that the arrest of an opposition spokesman has on this country’s reputation,
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Parliamentary privilege should not be abused but nor should it be wilfully discarded. We are as much at risk in this House now as those in the other place are. Indeed, Members of your Lordships’ House may have had confidential communications seized with the honourable Member for Ashford’s correspondence, if you had been dealing with him on any particular matter. So it is imperative that this matter is now examined by the committee set up by the Speaker in the other place, which we hope will have full access to everyone involved in the affair.
This House will not be content simply to follow whatever arrangements are put in place there to close the stable door. The Committee for Privileges, on which noble and learned Lords are represented, must review the protection of the rights of Members of your Lordships’ House. Yesterday the Leader of the House said that she had called for a report. We expect that report to be full and thorough.
Parliament has been brought into disrepute by the cack-handed handling of this matter. It must be resolved quickly now so that its reputation as a place of high principle is not dented further by the Government who lead it.
12.26 pm
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer: My Lords, we on these Benches do not think that anyone should be above the law—not MPs, not Members of your Lordships’ House, not civil servants. We do not, however, yet know what the situation is. We have heard about a leaking of classified information which threatens national security, and that would of course be very serious, but the Statement also speaks about sensitive information, including information about national security. It is not at all clear whether that means information which should be kept secret or information which should be in the public domain but is embarrassing. It is not clear whether we are talking about a crime or an embarrassment.
The Statement also talks about there being evidence of damage to the effective conduct of government business. That may be so. As the dust settles, however, we on these Benches will be looking again equally at all the evidence showing that the failure to allow the Opposition to conduct their business effectively—by, for example, not answering questions properly, fully or in a timely manner—can lead to the neutering of effective opposition. Indeed, in the previous Session I had to write to the Leader of the House asking for her assistance to ensure timely answers to Questions. She was very helpful and did her best in the circumstances, but that is only one example. If the Opposition’s ability to hold the Executive to account is weakened, Parliament’s role will fall into question.
The line between whistleblowing and civil servants breaking the law should be very clear. The Statement describes misconduct in public office as the offence. That is very wide. My noble friend Lord McNally reminded the House yesterday that we on these Benches
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As the Minister will know, we on these Benches are also hugely concerned about the misuse of counterterrorism powers. This is yet another example of a case in which the police have too lightly turned to these powers. The Minister will also be aware of several other instances which we cited in earlier debates where we questioned the use of counterterrorism measures to deal with other matters. It is a theme to which we shall return time and again, not only in reply to the gracious Speech but in discussing all the statutory instruments that will flood out of the most recent counterterrorism legislation.
Of course we welcome the review by Chief Constable Ian Johnston; I am sure that it will be helpful in clearing up various matters. As for the roles of the Speaker and the Serjeant at Arms, I do not think that it is a matter for this House to comment on until we have had at least the report from the committee in another place. However, we very much welcome both the comments that the Leader of this House made yesterday and the statement that the report on the position of this House and its Members will be completed as soon as possible. That is very helpful because the role of this House is no less of an issue. The Government are held more rigorously to account here—partly because we can discuss Bills in much greater detail, as we have no guillotine, and partly because we can still defeat the Government in the Division Lobbies.
12.31 pm
Lord West of Spithead: My Lords, first, the Statement was made by my right honourable friend in the other place at the first available opportunity. Obviously, events transpired over the period during which Parliament had prorogued and before the Queen’s Speech. It is therefore unfair to say that there has been rather a long delay; the Statement is in fact very prompt, bearing in mind all those parameters.
I am glad to say that I was certainly totally unaware that this matter was going on or was about to happen, which perhaps shows that I should be more aware of what is happening around me. What has struck me in the course of all of this is that I have never heard so many people—the media and everyone—saying so much about something about which they do not know any of the facts at all. We do not know the facts because there is an ongoing police investigation; I am certainly not aware of all the current details.
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