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New powers to tackle terrorism introduced in Counter Terror Bill

HOME OFFICE News Release (011/2008) issued by The Government News Network on 24 January 2008

Tough new measures to protect the public from terrorism were introduced today as the Home Office published the Counter Terrorism Bill 2008.

The Bill will help the Government deliver its priority to secure a Britain that is strong in security and robust in its resilience and resolve so that, as a nation, terrorism is tackled and violent extremism is isolated.

The Counter Terrorism Bill 2008 includes proposals to:

* Provide a power to increase the time terror suspects can be held before charge in future if exceptional circumstances require it;

* Enable post-charge questioning of terrorist suspects;

* Enhance sentences for terrorism-motivated general offences;

* Strengthen the monitoring arrangements for convicted terrorists and prevent them from foreign travel where necessary; and

* Ensure full use can be made of DNA in terrorism investigations.

Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said:

"The Government's first priority is to protect our citizens. We are facing an unprecedented threat from terrorism in this country and are determined to take whatever action is necessary to protect the public from future attacks.

"This Counter Terrorism Bill contains a broad range of measures to ensure the police and others have the tools they need to deal with the terrorist threat. It will help to strengthen terrorist prosecutions and our ability to deal with terrorist suspects after they have been charged.

"We all need to work together to tackle the terrorist challenge and we have consulted widely on the proposed measures. We have listened to the concerns of community groups and others and the proposals brought forward today aim to strike the right balance between the need to protect human rights and ensuring police have the powers they need, when they need them, to tackle terrorism."

Countering terrorism and violent extremism is one of the most important and urgent priorities for the police service, which is why we have provided record levels of funding for counter terrorism policing. In 2007-08 the police received £472 million in specifically targeted grants. In October we announced an additional £695 million for security and counter terrorism as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review. As a result of this, funding for police counter terrorism will be increased to £524 million in 2008-09, £552 million in 2009-10 and £579 million in 2010-11.

The police service is working closely with the Home Office to ensure that these significant additional resources address the priorities for counter terrorism policing across the country. Proposals being currently considered include:

* the establishment of a significantly reinforced Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Unit based in the South of England;

* significant reinforcement of the counter terrorist capability of the Metropolitan police;

* an increase in police resources dedicated to the Prevent workstrand of our counter terrorist strategy, CONTEST, intended to stop people becoming or supporting violent extremists. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is currently preparing detailed proposals in this area. Options are likely to include local Prevent Policing Teams connected to established regional Counter-Terrorism Units.

The Prevent policing proposals currently being developed (foreshadowed in the Home Secretary's speech on 17 January) will build on other initiatives successfully developed by police in recent years- neighbourhood policing, support programmes for drugs offenders, outreach to improve community cohesion and local partnerships to deal with arrange of criminal activity. The Government has already allocated £45m for over 70 local authorities over the next three years to fund projects to tackle violent extremism, working with local partners to identify over 200 local projects that have established best practice.

Jacqui Smith added:

"Today's Bill is one part of a much wider package of work we are doing on counter terrorism more generally and builds on our cross-Government strategy to prevent people becoming terrorists in the first place by challenging extremist ideology and by supporting communities in rooting out its influence."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The Counter Terror Bill 2008 was published on 24 January 2008 and will be available from 1pm on 24 January online at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmbills/063/08063.i-v.html