Port Examination Codes of Practice and National Security Determinations Guidance Regulations 2020

Lord Snape Excerpts

Friday 10th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Snape (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I apologise: we lost our internet connection earlier. I hope noble Lords will forgive me if I repeat anything said earlier.

I welcome these powers, but have a practical question on their application. Schedule 3 of the code of practice includes

“additional powers to allow an examining officer to retain and copy a person’s property (including confidential material)”.

Repeating a point made by my noble friend Lord Harris, I am at a loss to understand how, if someone claims to be a journalist, an officer could exercise these statutory duties in the way outlined by the code of practice. After all, according to the Explanatory Memorandum from the Home Office, journalistic protection requires all confidential material to be handled with care, to minimise the risk of it being seen by a front-line officer. Again, there is probably a simple explanation for this, but I cannot understand it. If a front-line officer is forbidden from seeing confidential information, how do we know that such information exists in the first place?

I have another fairly simple question for the Minister. The Minister for Security, James Brokenshire, wrote to Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, on 8 June. Has the Minister or the department received a response to that letter, setting out the Home Affairs Committee’s view on this statutory instrument? If so, will she share it with us today?