Monthly News Archives: June 2011

New anti-terrorism bill published

1 June 2011 by Adam Wagner

Updated | As a follow-up to Isabel McArdle’s post on an unsuccessful challenge to a control order, a quick note to say that the long-heralded Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Bill was published last week. 

The purpose of the bill, first previewed in January by the Counter-terroism review (see my post), is to abolish control orders and make provision for the imposition of terrorism prevention and investigation measures (so-called “TPIMs”). For more information on the human rights controversies surrounding control orders, see my post: Control orders: what are they are why do they matter?

Some useful links for more information on the bill:

• Download a PDF version of the bill – also available below through some technical jiggerypokery (Scribd)
• Track the progress of the bill through Parliament (you can even get updates via RSS or email)
• The Home Office press release, including a summary of the bill (reproduced below).
• The interesting European Convention on Human Rights memorandum, which includes detailed analysis of the human rights challenges to control orders so far.
• The January 2011 Review of Counter Terrorism and Security Powers
• Update – The House of Commons Library briefing paper on the bill (thanks to AlexanderHorne1)

Control orders and human rights to family life: not always incompatible

1 June 2011 by Isabel McArdle

CD v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWHC 1273 (Admin) Read judgment

As readers of this blog will know, control orders have often been successfully challenged in the courts on human rights grounds. But in this case, an order forcing a person to relocate to a different part of the country was found to be lawful.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 gives the Home Secretary the power create to control orders, which impose obligations on persons “for purposes connected with protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism”. One of the obligations permitted is a restriction on an individual’s place of residence.

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