Clause 64
Counter-Terrorism Bill
5:00 pm
Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, Law Officers; Beaconsfield, Conservative)
We come now to part 6, which deals with inquests and inquiries and is of some concern to me, notwithstanding the helpful, useful presentation by the Government last week that explained their reasoning in respect of this part of the Bill.
Amendment No. 134 is intended to probe the Minister on the circumstances in which a certificate will be issued for an inquest to be held without a jury. Clause 64 states:
“The Secretary of State may certify in relation to an inquest that,”
in his opinion,
“the inquest will involve the consideration of material that should not be made public...in the interests of national security...in the interests of the relationship between the United Kingdom and another country, or...otherwise in the public interest.”
Owing to the nature of the Bill’s original introduction, my understanding has always been that this provision will apply principally to inquests carried out in respect of matters with a terrorist connection, although perhaps because of the scope of the powers under clause 64(2) it will apply potentially in a much wider set of circumstances. I wish to probe the Government on that point.
The words,
“in the interests of national security...in the interests of the relationship between the United Kingdom and another country, or...otherwise in the public interest”,
provide as wide a definition as one can possibly get. The clause therefore goes much further than dealing with terrorism cases. I had the impression that the sort of case about which we might be concerned is where a terrorist is shot dead by the police, and the police had intelligence information relating to his activities that could not otherwise be made public—something that I can see is a very real possibility. In fact, the wording we are providing here potentially enables such an appointment to be made in a much wider set of circumstances. It is for that reason that I would seek some clarification from the Minister as to what those circumstances may be.