Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)

I thank noble Lords for their amendments, starting with Amendment 148A, from the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, which indeed is in line with the recommendation from the Constitution Committee, which I thank for its report and its detailed scrutiny of this legislation. As the noble Lord points out, Part 4 enables the Secretary of State to issue penalties for regulated entities that do not comply with directions. The High Court will have jurisdiction to review the lawfulness of a particular penalty issued under Part 4. The noble Lord, Lord Vaizey, referred to precedent and consistency. Our assessment is that the High Court is the appropriate route for hearing sensitive national security cases, consistent with the approach that previous Governments have taken to national security legislation. The Telecommunications (Security) Act, the National Security and Investment Act, and the Procurement Act, key pieces of national security legislation, all follow this approach. That is the reason we have adopted it here. To the point around parliamentary scrutiny of directions, the Government’s default position is that copies of directions will be laid in Parliament, to enable all parliamentarians to scrutinise the Government’s use of these powers. I am of course preparing a formal response to the Constitution Committee, which will be sent in due course.