Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 4:45 pm on 6 December 2001.

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Photo of Lord Rooker Lord Rooker Minister of State (Asylum and Immigration), Home Office, Minister (Home Office) (Asylum & Immigration) 4:45, 6 December 2001

Yes, my Lords. My noble friend Lord Bach says, Xyes". He is in the Ministry of Defence. If there is any problem about that I shall come back to the noble Lord. As far as I know, the Ministry of Defence is a UK organisation. We are here dealing with terrorism. Terrorism in the UK is a reserved matter for the Westminster Parliament. That should be a concrete answer.

However, I want to finish by giving a further example of why the clause is needed. At the present time, the Ministry of Defence Police cannot be requested by another police force to help protect injured service personnel in civilian hospitals. Because of changes with regard to military hospitals in recent years it is now more likely that our service personnel—perhaps injured abroad—will be treated and looked after in civilian hospitals. There is no power for the local police constable to ask the MoD Police to guard those personnel who, for obvious reasons, are in the terrorists' sights. Those hospitals are not on defence land. They are not Xin the vicinity of" defence land. I do not need to spell out the issue any more in order to make a case to noble Lords why Clause 99 should stand unamended as part of the Bill.