Results 1-20 of 38 for terrorism speaker:Christopher Huhne

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...we should not seek to extend that principle to these particular provisions. My argument today is that 28 day pre-charge detention is no longer a necessary or appropriate length of time to detain a terrorist suspect. The Government have not made their case on that. The Joint Committee on Human Rights released its report last month suggesting, as the hon. Member for Hendon said, that the...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...the United States—the United States example is particularly relevant—intercept evidence is already admissible in court. If she spent any time talking to serious investigators of both terrorism and organised crime in the United States, she would find that they think it astonishing that we are not prepared to avail ourselves of a fundamental tool for the bringing of successful...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...the real reason the Government failed so conclusively in their attempt to increase the number of days from 28 to 42 was that a whole series of serious people who had been involved in the counter-terrorism effort for many years were unpersuaded. The Crown Prosecution Service can now bring charges on the basis of reasonable suspicion alone, even when it does not think that the chance of a...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I will happily send the hon. Gentleman a letter, but he knows as well as I do that the number of terror cases is relatively small. The crucial point is this. If we are able to prosecute successfully more than three quarters of those against whom charges are brought, the massive amount of additional flexibility still available to the Crown Prosecution Service enables it to bring charges in...

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...have heard me enumerate a number of changes—in particular, the flexibility applying to the threshold test—which provide a substantially greater toolkit for the authorities dealing with terrorism than was available to them at that time. As the great liberal John Maynard Keynes once said: "When the facts change, I change my mind."

Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (9 Jul 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...that they rushed through in moments of panic and fear while attempting to reassure the public that action was being taken. The end-result has been that this Government have tumbled into a counter-terrorism strategy rather like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, in that there is no exit strategy and the Government can tell us nothing about when they intend to end these apparently temporary...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: ...that I should not. The slipperiness of ministerial justifications for the scheme is extraordinary. When the ID card scheme was launched, the cards were heralded as the solution to the problem of terrorism. It might not have been in the manifesto, but in 2007 the Prime Minister stated that they formed the backbone of any anti-terror policy. That was always nonsense, and was demonstrated as...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: ...makes the inevitable myriad small errors potentially catastrophic. At every level and every turn, the entire national identity register scheme, including ID cards, is flawed. It will not prevent terrorism, illegal working or crime, and it will not protect us against identity fraud—it might even make the problem more difficult to disentangle. Why are we doing it? I am forced to...

Commission for the Compact: Policing and Crime Bill (Programme) (No. 2) (19 May 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...reform, alcohol, extradition and proceeds of crime—let alone the many excellent and interesting new clauses that have been tabled on issues such as demonstrations around Parliament, anti-terrorism laws and drug paraphernalia. For that reason, we will vote against the programme motion, having tabled amendments to it. The amendments would allow for an hour and 30 minutes on DNA, the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: International Terrorism (24 Mar 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...the substantial purple document that accompanies it. Perhaps on the next occasion the Home Secretary could arrange to inform Members that it is available, as that certainly was not obvious to me. Terrorism remains a grave threat to our society—on that, we are agreed. I too pay tribute to the work of the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and, indeed, the police forces...

Employment Retention: Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (3 Mar 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...it involves merely a reasonable suspicion on the part of the Home Secretary, which is broadly the evidentiary basis that the Director of Public Prosecutions requires to charge someone with counter-terrorism offences. My party argues that control orders breach the right to a fair hearing. A person does not know what they are suspected of. They have a limited ability to challenge and defend...

Employment Retention: Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (3 Mar 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...becomes a recruiting sergeant for people to join a fight that we do not want to exist. We should learn the lesson from the cases of those held for the maximum period of detention without charge for terrorism offences. The 42 days debate made it clear that half of those held for nearly the maximum period—three people—were released without charge and without further surveillance...

Employment Retention: Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (3 Mar 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...that the hon. Gentleman is completely misguided on the matter. I return to the developments that have made it easier to close the gap. First, there has been an enormous increase in the number of terrorism offences, under both the Terrorism Act 2006 and the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. One answer to the right hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts, who is no longer in his place, is that there is...

Olympics: Policing and Crime Bill (19 Jan 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...Home Secretary's implication earlier that she has not entirely given up on that vision, but I hope that it is not just a smokescreen for retreat, as was the case with the provisions in the Counter-Terrorism Bill, when although she said that she was not changing her mind, the reality was that the policy had changed fundamentally. I do not know what the Government's answer in this Bill...

Bills Presented — Business Rate Supplements Bill: Home Affairs and Justice (4 Dec 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: Can the Justice Secretary give the House an assurance that he will not reintroduce in the coroners Bill the clauses on secret inquests and the Secretary of State's powers from the counter-terrorism Bill?

Bills Presented — Business Rate Supplements Bill: Home Affairs and Justice (4 Dec 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...always been the potential for extending legislation beyond its original intention when it is put into practice. We have seen that happen time and again, for example, in the application of counter-terrorism legislation to stifle the heckling of the Justice Secretary—as he now is—at a Labour party conference: Walter Wolfgang, a Labour activist, was arrested under...

Bills Presented — Business Rate Supplements Bill: Home Affairs and Justice (4 Dec 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...that we need reform, that speed and timeliness in coroners' inquests are a real issue, and that it is crucial that bereaved families can get an inquest rapidly. However, the Government's proposals in the counter-terrorism Bill, now dropped, were horrendous, and they must not be resuscitated. Coroners' inquests are an essential bulwark against the abuse of state power, as they establish...

Orders of the Day: Counter-Terrorism Bill (19 Nov 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...Democrats are very pleased that the Government have decided not at this time to press for any further extension of the period of detention without charge. We are not in any way being softer on terrorism or less enthusiastic about bringing terrorists to justice than any other party, but there is a fundamental disagreement about the correct and most effective way of tackling this situation....

Bill Presented: Intelligence and Security Committee (17 Jul 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...that the ISC was refused sight of the minute from the Prime Minister to the Attorney-General that accompanied the note, "The Saudi contribution to our domestic and international efforts to combat terrorism". That whole episode has done great damage to our reputation at home and abroad. I note that the Committee states that it "is satisfied that...there were serious national security...

Bill Presented: Intelligence and Security Committee (17 Jul 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...respecting the point that we await the result of the Government's deliberations on the Chilcot review. We hope that a resolution can quickly be found that allows for the successful prosecution of terror suspects by using intercept evidence while protecting the needs of our security services. We know, for example, that that has been done successfully in the United States and Australia, both...