New terror bill 'due in new year'

Home secretary John Reid says new terror bill due in the new year

Tuesday, 12, Dec 2006 12:00

A new counter-terrorism bill will be introduced in the new year, the home secretary has announced, although he warned against "assumptions" about what it may include.

The home secretary said he had completed his review of the government's resources, capability and structure in dealing with the terror threat, and had submitted it to Tony Blair.

It will form the basis for the new legislation, combined with a report from Lord Carlile, the government's independent reviewer of terror laws, on a definition of terrorism, and a Home Office review into whether to allow phone tap evidence in court.

"On the terrorism side, I think you could expect something in the new year," Mr Reid told MPs on the home affairs select committee.

He said he was unable to give any further details on what it may include, or to confirm whether it would be a consolidation bill to bring together all the anti-terror bills since the Terrorism Act 2000, or would be a new piece of legislation entirely.

But he said his government-wide review had highlighted the need for a "seamless, integrated, driven, politically-overseen counter-terrorism strategy which places at its heart the recognition that above all, this is a battle for ideas and values".

One of the biggest issues is whether the bill would recommend an increase in the time terror suspects can be held by police without charge beyond the current 28-day limit.

Giving evidence to the committee this morning, Mr Reid played down suggestions of a rift among ministers on the issue. He said he backed the views of the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, who stated he had yet to see the case for further detention powers.

The home secretary told the MPs that he would consider drawing up plans to extend the 28-day limit if the evidence existed, but "that case has not yet been put to me and that is where I stand". He added that he had an "open mind" on the question.

In the forthcoming bill, changes may also be introduced to the control order system, which is used on terror suspects who cannot be deported but for whom there is not enough evidence to charge.

In August, the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling that control orders forcing six men to stay in their homes for 18 hours a day breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The government is currently challenging this.

Yesterday Mr Reid revealed that two people who absconded from their control orders remain at large, prompting the Conservatives to warn of "basic flaws in the system".

But speaking to MPs this morning, the home secretary made clear the government was "doing everything we can to apprehend them" and stressed that control orders were not "the ideal" situation, but were the only way of dealing with terror suspects.