Clause 29
Counter-Terrorism Bill
3:00 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
The amendment seeks to make it even clearer that a court in England and Wales, when considering whether an offence listed in schedule 2 is connected to terrorism, must do so only on the basis of open evidence presented by the prosecution and defence. That is the evidence that a court usually has before it for sentencing. The defendant will be able to challenge any evidence on which a terrorist determination is made, either during the trial or, if there is a guilty plea and the judge holds a Newton hearing where the defence and prosecution dispute facts of the case which would affect sentences, so as to decide the matter at that hearing.
It was always intended for that to be the case. There was never any suggestion in the Government’s proposal that a determination could be made on the basis of intelligence, or evidence withheld from the defence due to PII or other, lesser-status information, such as that contained in a pre-sentence report. However, we felt that we should make a slight amendment to the drafting so as to put the matter even more beyond doubt than it already was. That is the substance behind the amendment.
For completeness, it may be appropriate if I leave others to move their subsequent amendments, and I will reply to them all in due course.