Lord Katz (Lab)

My Lords, I welcome the novel approach taken by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and his retabling of the amendments that we discussed in Committee. I will follow his lead and that of the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Lochiel, and try to be brief. I will not regurgitate points made in Committee, although I look forward to seeing whether I take the same stance that I did in Committee of performing, in the words of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, “parliamentary jujitsu” in coming to the position that he was not entirely keen on. I want to say, very briefly—and I am happy to write to address the detail in all the amendments—that these measures are vital to provide law enforcement officers with access to new intelligence to fight crime, increase public protection and reduce the threat of societal harm posed by international criminality. The Government are committed to maintaining high data protection standards and ensuring that privacy is not compromised as we strengthen cross-border security. The proposed requirements in these amendments may duplicate established processes rather than add transparency or value. There is a significant risk posed by these amendments that such regulations become burdensome—that is what I said in Committee, and I stand by it—and resource-intensive to a degree where they become unusable in practice.