---

Counter-Terrorism Bill

Will the Minister reflect on the justification he gave for retaining the right of a police officer to carry out post-charge questioning in the first 24 hours? He said that it was not in the interests of the prosecution or the police to allow that to happen in oppressive circumstances because the court, ultimately, would have an opportunity to identify that and to disallow the evidence that it produced. Will he reflect on that because it is by no means certain that a court would be able accurately to identify whether or not the circumstances of the questioning were oppressive? As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, said, it is readily foreseeable that oppression will occur in those circumstances when a police officer is doing it. It would be much better to avoid the risk of something as readily foreseeable in our procedure as a whole. That is a rather powerful answer to the justification put forward by the Minister. Will he reflect on it in the general context of our discussions today?