Sir Julian Lewis: On a different but not unrelated point, the Minister will recall that I referred to the annual report given to the Secretary of State detailing the individual bulk personal datasets that had been retained and examined. There is no extra work involved in letting the ISC and IPCO [Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office] see that report. The only possible justifiable exclusion would be something that, at the time of the report, was still current. Is there any reason at all why IPCO and the ISC should not be sent that report, rather than a severely watered-down version?

[The Minister for Security (Tom Tugendhat): My right hon. Friend answers his own question. The reason for the difference is the currency element.]

Sir Julian Lewis: In that case, we can reach agreement if the Minister would like to give us an assurance that the only difference between the two reports will be the exclusion of matters that are current at the time of drawing up the report, but I suspect that there will be many other differences between the two reports.

[Tom Tugendhat: I will be very happy to talk to my right hon. Friend about that to make sure that he is satisfied. It is important that we make sure that the reports that go to the House – through the ISC, because of the nature of the reports – are relevant and allow appropriate scrutiny. I think we can all agree with that. …]

[For Julian's speech in this debate click here.]