Home Office: 'Looking at all aspects' of counter-terrorism

Tuesday, 29, May 2007 12:00

The Home Office has admitted that an expansion of police stop-and-question powers will be part of the government's forthcoming counter-terrorist plans, but has promised a wide level of consultation on the proposals.

"We're considering a wide range of measures and it is one of them," a Home Office spokesperson told politics.co.uk, "but at the moment these are draft proposals".

The Home Office plans to announce their new counter-terrorism plans in weeks, and then consult parliament, the police and community groups before asking Lord Carlisle to report on them. Lord Carlisle is an independent adjudicator and monitor of national security evidence, as well as a staunch advocate of civil liberties.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, Tony McNulty, counter-terrorism minister, said the stop-and-question powers were not a "fait accompli", and stressed the lengthy period of consultation that would follow them.

"There will be plenty of time to consult with a whole range of people before introducing such a bill - probably as late as October, November," he said.