Political

Anti-terrorism legislation: news emerges of likely reforms

In his Hugo Young lecture last week Nick Clegg clearly signalled the imminent end to control orders. Now over the last couple of days the shape of the likely conclusions from the anti-terrorism review are starting to emerge, with the current 28-day limit on detention without charge coming back down to 14 days. A new set of tighter than usual bail conditions could then be imposed for a further 14 days.

The police’s stop and search powers are also likely to be curtailed, particularly following the news that in the last year over 100,000 stop and searches were conducted under the controversial section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, but not even one arrest for terrorism followed as a result.

On control orders themselves, Lib Dem peer (and adviser on anti-terrorist legislation to the government until 31st December) Lord Carlile is suggesting a three-tier replacement system, ranging from foreign travel restrictions (only) through to more general travel restrictions and up to specific activity restrictions in some cases. However, not only are other Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians continuing to argue vigorously against control orders full stop, so too are Conservative MPs led by David Davis.

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