In basic terms, yes, certainly.

The report contains detailed suggestions for making the system of review by an adviser more effective. In paragraph 193 Lord Jellicoe points out that one third of the orders that have been reviewed by an adviser have then been revoked. This leads him to the conclusion that the system of review is a real safeguard. But he recognises that representations, including an interview with the adviser, now require the subject to remain for a further period in custody in order to take advantage of the arrangements. This deterrent effect is to he eliminated by providing for a personal interview with the adviser after a subject has been removed provided he has been removed within the United Kingdom or to the Republic of Ireland.

The final recommendation to which I think it right to draw attention at the beginning of this debate is that exclusion orders should have a fixed term of three years. The report recommends that after that length of time, if exclusion is still thought necessary, the whole process should be followed again from the beginning, to ensure that the strength of the case for exclusion is scrutinised anew. Lord Jellicoe found the consideration of the system of exclusion the most difficult part of his task. He recommended the additional safeguards I have mentioned. But he concluded that the exclusion of some people under these powers has materially contributed to public safety in the United Kingdom and that this could not have been achieved through the normal criminal process". I can say—this answers the right hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Freeson)—that the Government accept many of Lord Jellicoe's recommendations for immediate implementation. I have already given effect to the recommendation that I, rather than the responsible junior Minister, should consider applications from the police for an extension of detention under the Act. Several of the recommendations can be implemented administratively either by circular or by informal arrangements. Subject to the views of the House in this debate and the views in another place—and I thought it right to wait for these debates—I am ready to give effect to these recommendations without delay.

But the most significant recommendations require new legislation and I intend to introduce a Bill which, as Lord Jellicoe suggests, will be subject to annual renewal and have a limited span of five years. I hope, therefore, that this will be the last time that a Home Secretary will be asking the House to renew the 1976 Act for a full year.

As to the detailed content of the Bill—on the scope of the arrest powers and on the power to make exclusion orders—I believe that it is right to remain uncommitted for some weeks yet. We have asked chief officers of police for their comments and we will want to give full weight also to the views which are expressed in the House and elsewhere before deciding on the contents of the Bill in detail.

Lord Jellicoe concluded that special legislation should be continued as long as a substantial terrorist threat remained. This is a view that has been shared by this House since the right hon. Member for Glasgow, Hillhead (Mr. Jenkins), then Home Secretary, introduced the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974 in the wake of the Birmingham bombs with their tragic toll of 21 dead. On that occasion the right hon. Gentleman said: In bringing forward these proposals I have tried to steer between two dangers, both of them real. The first is that we fail to take effective and practical steps which are available to us to deal as effectively as we can with terrorism. The second is that if we over-react we risk doing serious damage to our respect for human freedom and dignity. I believe that the course that I am proposing in very difficult circumstances steers us as safely as it reasonably can through these twin dangers".—[Official Report, 28 November 1974; Vol. 882, c. 643.] There was no doubt at this time last year that the deaths in the Chelsea barracks and Oxford street outrages, the explosion which injured Sir Steuart Pringle and the explosion outside the home of my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General, demonstrated a continuing threat. Against that background, the House decided to renew the Act.

I now come before the House to seek the renewal of this Act after a year that has seen further outrages which remain indelibly etched on our memories. The House does not need to be reminded of the horror and destruction which blew apart a summer's day in two London parks last July. In the wake of the suffering and the sorrow of so many, it is my firm belief that we must continue to use every practical and useful tool in our hand to frustrate terror. This Act is a vital instrument to this end, and I recommend that we should keep its powers for another year. The purpose of the order, which was laid before the House on 9 February, is to continue in operation for a further year the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1976. The Act is due to lapse, unless renewed, on 24 March.

The means of the terrorists are abhorrent. To the degree that they become more savage, cruel and pitiless, so must we become more determined and steadfast in frustrating them. We must surely all of us resolve to beat the bombers. The clearest proof of their failure to terrorise, and of our own resolution, is demonstrated by a measured, sensible and constructive response to the threat. I believe that the current prevention of terrorism legislation reflected this approach in 1974 and 1976, and that it would be unwise to jettison it now. But I also believe, and have said so many times in the past, that its powers are unwelcome and make sad inroads into our cherished traditions of civil liberties. It was for those very reasons that, in agreement with hon. Members in all parts of the House, I appointed Lord Jellicoe to scrutinise the operation of the Act, and hon. Members will know from what I have said that it is against the background of his findings that I seek renewal of the present legislation today.

The police have confirmed to me the view which they gave to Lord Jellicoe: that the Act is as important to them as it has ever been. It is as well to remind ourselves that, except for part I on proscription, the Act applies throughout the United Kingdom. The powers of arrest in section 12 are vital to the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The magnitude of its task and the importance of doing nothing to weaken its effectiveness were brought home by the grief and horror of the Ballykelly bombing last December.

In this debate last year, when I announced the decision to appoint Lord Jellicoe, the right hon. Member for Sparkbrook said that he looked forward with anxiety as well as eagerness to the conclusions of the report and to examining them with the greatest but the most sceptical care. Within a matter of hours of the publication of the report the right hon. Gentleman was broadcasting his view that the shadow Cabinet should decide to vote against the renewal of the 1976 Act. It appears that his scepticism was so deep that it overbore his intention to examine the report with great care.

There are several attitudes to this renewal, other than simple support, which I could understand and with which I could sympathise. If the right hon. Gentleman were to say that he finds this issue difficult, that he feels the continuance of these powers to be repugnant but on balance believes that it is right, I would be bound to understand, because it summarises my own position. If he expressed his unhappiness at this procedure, which requires the House to take the Act or leave it in its present form, I should understand that. If he argued that in several particulars Lord Jellicoe had not gone far enough, that also I could understand. However, we are to have a Bill that will provide ample opportunity for a line-by-line analysis of the Government's proposals, and the right hon. Gentleman and his colleagues will be able to press specific criticism of the 1976 Act or of Lord Jellicoe's analysis. It is with the right hon. Gentleman's present position that I cannot sympathise. I have said that the threat is tragically no less that it was in 1974 and 1976 when his party sponsored this legislation.

The police, whom we ask to protect us from terrorist outrages, strongly favour renewal of the Act. Nothing has changed to make these provisions any less vital. The only possible conclusion is that the Labour party has changed. I regret that attitude, because I have long been convinced that it is best for the protection of our people that exceptional measures of this kind should have the all-party support in this House which they have had since the Labour party itself introduced them. The Government of the day cannot be deflected from their clear responsibility. We have not flinched from that commitment, and for that reason we seek the renewal of the Act.

I ask the House for its strong support for this renewal as a clear demonstration of our continued will to do all within our power to protect the lives of the people whom we represent.