Belhaj and Boudchar: Litigation Update

Alex Chalk Excerpts

Thursday 10th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney General]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. It is important that we continue to strike that balance, and where we get it wrong, we say so.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

I am very grateful to the Attorney General for his dignified and direct statement. It is absolutely right in these very troubling circumstances that the Government do not seek to cavil or equivocate. On two occasions in his statement, he referred to the unacceptable practices of international partners. Can he say anything more about what can be done to ensure that those do not persist in the future, and that if they do, the British Government play no part in them?

[The Attorney General]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He will recognise that some of the changes that have been made since this incident have, I hope, encouraged us to ask better questions and to ask them more persistently. I made reference to the consolidated guidance, of which he will know, and in relation to such documents, we make it very clear that intelligence operatives should ask questions, before information is handed over, about what will be done with that information and what may then happen. Therefore, we do need to see better questions asked more repeatedly, and that, I believe, is one of the changes that is occurring.