Policy background Management of terrorist offenders
Sections 325 to 327B of the CJA 2003 provide for the establishment of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements ("MAPPA") across England and Wales. These arrangements require the Police, Probation and Prison Services to work together with other agencies to assess and manage the risks posed by violent and sexual offenders living in the community in order to protect the public. Offenders who meet the criteria set out in sections 325 to 327 of the CJA 2003 will be subject to management under the MAPPA process.
	The measures that may be put in place under MAPPA to manage the risk posed by terrorist offenders can include the use of licence conditions: placing restrictions on association, residence, movement and activities; applying electronic monitoring requirements to the offender; surveillance; or the use of civil preventative orders, such as serious crime prevention orders.
	Following the terrorist attack in Fishmongers’ Hall, London, in November 2019, (which was committed by a terrorist offender released on licence) the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, was asked to undertake an independent review of MAPPA regarding the management of terrorist offenders and other offenders of terrorism concern. Under current MAPPA arrangements, offenders convicted of a terrorism offence listed in Part 3 of Schedule 15 to the CJA 2003 must be managed under MAPPA, whilst other terrorism or terrorist connected offenders are managed under the discretionary power in section 325(2)(b) which allows for management of other offenders who are assessed to pose a risk to the public. The outcome of the independent review was published on 2 September 2020 and concluded that MAPPA was a well-established process which did not require wholesale change. Instead, the review recommended a number of legislative changes to the current system including additional powers to better manage offenders who present a risk of committing an act of terrorism, including:
Statutory provision to enable judges to grant search warrants to check an offender’s compliance with their licence conditions, where this is necessary for the purpose of assessing their terrorist risk;
Statutory provision to allow the police to conduct a personal search, to look for weapons or harmful objects in cases where a new licence condition requires an offender to submit to a personal search;
Statutory provision enabling the arrest, in urgent cases, of released offenders pending a decision to recall to prison where there is concern they might abscond;
Amendment of section 325(2)(a) of the CJA 2003 so that all persons subject to the notification requirements of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 are automatically eligible for MAPPA;
Statutory provision in the CJA 2003 so that other dangerous offenders who are deemed to be at risk of involvement in terrorism-related activity are eligible for MAPPA whether or not their risk arises from offences committed by them;
Statutory provision in the CJA 2003, equivalent to section 115 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, providing a lawful basis for disclosure by any person or body for the purpose of MAPPA; and
Statutory provision in the CJA 2003 clarifying the statutory function of MAPPA for all MAPPA agencies for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018, to provide agencies with certainty about which regime applies when sharing information under MAPPA.
	On 17 December 2020, the Government set out its response to the independent review of terrorist supervision in a Written Ministerial Statement and a letter to Jonathan Hall QC. In the statement, the Government committed to bringing forward legislation to introduce further powers for the police and probation service in line with Jonathan Hall QC’s recommendations. Chapter 4 of Part 10 of the Act gives effect to the above recommendations. Other recommendations made by Jonathan Hall QC which require legislation have been implemented through the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021.