Commentary Section 14: Amendment of section 103 of the Terrorism Act 2000
41.Section 103 of the Terrorism Act 2000 makes it an offence to collect, record or possess information about certain categories of people, which is likely to be useful for terrorism. One of these categories is "full-time employees of the prison service".
42.Lord Carlile, who was appointed in 2001 as the independent reviewer of the Terrorism Act 2000, in his second annual report on Part VII of the Act recommended that Section 103 be extended to include part-time employees of the Prison Service. This section amends section 103(2)(e) to remove the distinction between full and part-time workers and to ensure that those who work in the prison service but are employed by other government departments are also protected by the offence.