Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Buckland Excerpts
Monday 10th March 2014

(10 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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James Brokenshire Portrait James Brokenshire
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My hon. Friend has consistently made this point about human rights, and he is obviously well aware of a number of the measures that we have been looking at. Clearly, we have taken steps to ensure, for example, that we are better able to deport individuals and that our focus remains on deportation with assurance to ensure that those who would cause us harm and can be removed are removed from this country.

Robert Buckland Portrait Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)
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Does my hon. Friend agree that TPIMs are but a part of the array of powers available to the police and surveillance services to protect us from harm, and that they are far more able to withstand the sort of legal challenges that caused huge problems under the previous control order regime?

James Brokenshire Portrait James Brokenshire
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My hon. Friend makes an important point. What the Opposition do not say when they raise this issue is that control orders were struck down on a number of occasions for a range of reasons. I am clear that prosecution is always the best route to deal with terrorists, and we should recognise the success of our agencies in securing the conviction of 40 individuals for terrorism-related offences in the past year.