Counter-Terrorism Bill
1:00 pm
Lord Carlile: There are two points. First, the Director of Public Prosecutions accepts the use of the threshold test and you, as a Committee, and Parliament will have to examine whether the threshold test, which is a much lower standard than the normal code of Crown prosecutors test for prosecuting, is an acceptable test for charging people with extremely serious offences.
Secondly, I have great regard for Sir Ken Macdonald; I know him, I have worked with him and I think that he is extremely good at his job. All I would say is that I have spent the last six and a half years looking at terrorism case after terrorism case, and many of the suspects have not been charged with a crime. I look at every detail, including the background intelligence, in every single control order case, for example. My belief, for what it is worth—you will have to make your own evaluation of it—is that, as I have said earlier, there is a small number of extremely serious cases to which the threshold test might apply.
I would like to say one final thing, Chairman. I want us to have an enduring corpus of terrorism law. I would not like to see someone released—a scientist, for example—who then took part in some future terrorism plot, and then have to observe the reaction in both Houses of Parliament to such an event occurring.