1. We published on 22 January 2007 a Report on the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism.[1] We normally expect to receive a reply from the Government to our Reports within two months. The Government's own guidance on this matter accurately reflects our own expectations:

Departments should aim to provide the considered Government response to both Commons and Lords Select Committee Reports within two months of their publication. Where a report is complex or technical in its nature, the response may on occasion require a little longer: the Committee should be kept informed. In the case of Joint Committees, the two month target should apply, unless a longer timetable is agreed with the Committee.[2]

2. The Home Office did not meet the two months target and nor did it keep us informed when it would reply to our Report. Informal enquiries at official level met with conflicting responses. We drew attention to the delay in replying to this Report in our annual report on our work in 2007, which was published on 1 February 2008. We called on the Government to reply to our Report "as a matter of urgency".[3]

3. We finally received the Government's Response to our Report under cover of a letter dated 13 February 2008 from Tony McNulty MP, Minister of State at the Home Office. We are publishing the Minister's letter and the reply to our Report as an appendix to this Report. We are grateful for the Minister's apology for what he describes as "an unacceptable delay" in responding to us. We will comment on the substance of the Government reply in our future work on counter-terrorism policy and human rights.

2   Departmental Evidence and Response to Select Committees (the 'Osmotherley Rules'), Cabinet Office, 2007, para 108. Back

3   Sixth Report of Session 2007-08, The Work of the Committee in 2007 and the State of Human Rights in the UK, HL Paper 38, HC 270, para 83. Back