Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill

Debate between Jack Straw and Jim Hood

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Temporary Chair (Mr Jim Hood)]

Order. I obviously agree with the right hon. Member’s opinion about his hon. Friend, but it would be nice if he spoke to the amendment.

[Mr Straw]

Apologies; as a relatively new Member, I was led astray by my hon. Friend.

I come back to the point of the amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich East. I wish that we had had more extended debates on the Bill, stretching over a number of days, but that has not been available. There is some strength in the point made by the hon. Member for Cambridge. Let us say that the legislation was repealed in December. What additional information would we have on its operation after it had been in force for only a matter of months? What prospect would there have been of gaining additional information about how the Act was operating? I suspect that, whether we spent a day, a week or a month on the replacement for the Bill—that would have to start in the middle of October—to allow proper legislative time, we would simply be repeating the contents of this Bill. It is far better to have the extended period with a clear sunset in 2016, plus the reviews, to which my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn has referred, as a way of carefully considering the future of this kind of legislation and then making sober decisions at some length after the election.