Counter-Terrorism Bill
1:00 pm
Lord Carlile: That is a matter for the court. You have given an extreme example; I cannot think of a situation in which a 40-year sentence would be reduced to four. However, if a 40-year sentence were reduced to, for example, 15 years, and the consequence was that 1,000 lives were saved, that would seem to me to be entirely proportionate. We are talking about the crux of English administrative law—proportionality. The reduction must be proportional to the information that has been given. The record of administrative court judges in recent years shows that they are pretty good at applying the proportionality test, and I suspect that most judges would quickly get used to that kind of situation. If you look at the records of Diplock courts in Northern Ireland—as you will know, Mr. Mercer, as I think that you have some Northern Ireland experience—