Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 4:30 pm on 6 December 2001.

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Photo of Lord Peston Lord Peston Labour 4:30, 6 December 2001

My Lords, my noble friend knows that I intensely dislike parts of this Bill. That will be made clear on Monday. However, I found his argument about the pieces of the jigsaw totally compelling. That appears to me to make good sense. I do not find the wording of Clause 17(2)—

Xthe purposes of any criminal investigation", and so on—at all troubling. But I understood one or two noble Lords to be asking a slightly different question. It would help the House if my noble friend placed his answer on the record.

I believe that noble Lords are worried about what one may call a Xrandom walk" through everyone's tax returns to see what may turn up. As I understand my noble friend, that activity would not be possible; for example, the authorities could not look at my tax return or that of my noble friend just because they thought that we might be engaged in criminal or terrorist activities as they would have no reason to believe that. Can the Minister reassure the House that that kind of random trawl is not suddenly to be permitted under this legislation?