Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill

Debate between Lord Udny-Lister and Lord Harris of Haringey

Report stage
Tuesday 4th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak, briefly, in support of the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe. I do not want to repeat everything I said previously, but it is important. I know the Minister will say that this is not the appropriate Bill, but the trouble is that there is never an appropriate one, and therefore we keep on missing the opportunities of starting to design out terrorism and crime from the very start. So I would hope that, after this, the Minister will at least take this on board with his colleagues and try to push hard for people to start thinking seriously about doing this for new developments, particularly larger ones.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I am not sure whether we are actually debating this or not, because I do not think the chair has put it to us. However, I will say in one sentence that both the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, and the noble Lord, Lord, Lord Udny-Lister, have a point that this is an important provision. We should be building into planning legislation —into licensing legislation—arrangements to design out terrorism and, I would go further, to design out crime.

I hope that the Minister will be able to say in reply that that is something the Government will bring forward in another way, at another time.