Part 6: Amendments of Or Relating to the Terrorism Acts Summary and Background
216.Sections 15 to 18 of the Terrorism Act 2000 criminalise instances of terrorist financing. It is a criminal offence to provide, use or possess funds or property where an individual intends or has reasonable cause to suspect that such funds or property will be used for the purposes of terrorism. It is also an offence to enter into an arrangement where an individual intends or has reasonable cause to suspect that funds or property will be made available for the purposes of terrorism as a result of that arrangement.
217.With kidnap and ransom insurance the expectation that a ransom payment might be reimbursed might create an environment which facilitates the payment of terrorist ransoms. The provision in this Act makes clear that insurers may not reimburse ransom payments made to terrorists. This provision creates a new offence which explicitly prohibits the reimbursement of a payment which insurers know or have reasonable cause to suspect has been made in response to a terrorist demand.
218.Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 (“Schedule 7”) allows an examining officer (defined in paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 7) to stop, question and, when necessary, detain and search, individuals travelling through ports, airports, international rail stations or the border area to determine whether that person appears to be someone who is or has been involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
219.Schedule 7 also contains a power, in paragraph 9, for examining officers to examine goods to which that paragraph applies for the purpose of determining whether they have been used in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. The power to examine goods applies to (a) goods which have arrived in or are about to leave Great Britain or Northern Ireland on a ship or vehicle, and (b) goods which have arrived at or are about to leave any place in Great Britain or Northern Ireland on an aircraft (whether the place they have come from or are going to is within or outside Great Britain or Northern Ireland). Goods are defined in paragraph 9(3) as property of any description, and containers. The provisions in Schedule 8 to this Act contain measures which clarify this goods examination power.