Summary
3.The purpose of this Act is to reform and extend previous counter-terrorist legislation to ensure that the UK law enforcement agencies have the necessary powers to counter the threat to the UK posed by terrorism. A number of these changes are also required to implement different international Conventions, which the UK is a party to. The Act also amends previous legislation relating to investigatory powers and the intelligence services.
4.The measures in the Act include both those that were already envisaged prior to the terrorist incidents in London on 7 July 2005 and 21 July 2005 and those that have been included following those incidents.
5.Previous counter-terrorism legislation provided a range of measures designed to prevent terrorism and support the investigation of terrorist crime. These were placed on a permanent footing in the Terrorism Act 2000 (c.11) (“the TACT”). These include a power for the Secretary of State to proscribe terrorist organisations, backed up by a series of offences connected with such organisations; other specific offences connected with terrorism; and a range of police powers. Further additions to counter-terrorism legislation were made in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (c.24) (“the ATCSA”) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (c.2) (“The PTA”).
6.The Act creates a number of new offences. These new offences include the offence of encouragement of terrorism, an offence relating to bookshops and other disseminators of terrorist publications, an offence of the preparation of terrorist acts, and further terrorist training offences. The Act also creates a number of offences relating to radioactive material or devices, and nuclear facilities, and amends the penalty for certain offences relating to nuclear material.
7.The Act alters the existing legislative framework by amending the TACT in a number of ways. Firstly, the Act makes some changes to terrorist offences (for example raising the penalty for the offence of possession for terrorist purposes). Secondly, it extends powers currently available to the Secretary of State relating to proscription, to allow for the proscription of groups which glorify terrorism or the activities of which associate it with acts that glorify terrorism, and to deal with proscribed organisations that change their names. The Act also extends police and investigatory powers in relation to terrorism (such as allowing the extension of detention of terrorist suspects with judicial approval for up to 28 days, and enabling all premises search warrants to be issued).
8.With reference to the powers of the security and intelligence services, the Act also amends the Intelligence Services Act 1994 (“the ISA”) (c.13) with respect to warrants to carry out acts both overseas and in the UK. It also amends the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (“the RIPA”) (c.23) in a number of ways. Firstly, it increases the penalties for refusal to obey a notice to provide an encryption key, as set out in Part 3 of that Act. Secondly, it amends investigatory powers, extending the period that warrants for intercept (and related authorisations) under that Act are issued for, and further delegating the authority to modify warrant schedules.
9.Finally, the Act amends the definition of terrorism as contained in the TACT.