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On 13 November the Home Secretary published a new Bill aimed at ensuring balancing the security and freedoms of UK citizens in the wake of September 11 terrorist attacks. The Bill contains measures to cut off terrorist access to funds, ensure better information sharing between agencies, and a host of other measures.

The Bill in brief:

Ensure law enforcement agencies have the powers and information needed to effectively combat global terrorism:

• Provide law enforcement agencies with vital information to target and track terrorists by requiring carriers to supply information about passengers and freight.

• Enable communication service providers to retain data – not content – for reasons of national security or where it may be vital for criminal investigation. This will be governed by a voluntary Code of Practice being developed in close consultation with industry.

• Enable important measures to fight terrorism and serious crime agreed by EU leaders to be implemented by secondary legislation following approval by Parliament.

• Remove the scope for people to unreasonably refuse to assist the police in identifying them by allowing the police to require the removal of hand and face coverings (such as masks).

• Remove barriers that prevent customs and revenue officers sharing information with other law enforcement agencies to aid in the fight against terrorism and other crime.

• Introduce penalties for those who willingly choose to withhold information from the authorities that could help to prevent future terrorist attacks.

• Introduce penalties for crimes of corruption committed by UK citizens and companies abroad and foreign nationals here, which help to undermine good governance and contribute to the conditions which engender terrorism.

Prevent terrorists from abusing our immigration and asylum procedures:

• Allowing extended detention for suspected international terrorists who threaten national security and for whom there is no immediate prospect of removal (requiring a limited derogation from ECHR Article 5) providing protection for the public and sending a strong signal to others.

• In suspected terrorist cases, where someone is excluded from the protection of the 1951 Convention, allow us not to consider the substance of their claim.

• Remove access to Judicial Review for Special Immigration Appeals Commission decisions in relation to the above two measures.

• Enable retention of certain fingerprints taken in immigration and asylum cases for 10 years helping to prevent people from re-applying for asylum to create multiple identities that could be used for criminal ends.

Prevent people from capitalising on the events of September 11 to cause disorder and panic:

• Extend existing racially aggravated offences to cover offences motivated by religious hatred, carrying a higher penalty, and make it an offence to incite hatred against members of a religious group without preventing people from reasoned debate and criticism of religions and religious practices.

• Extend the present law which covers bomb hoaxes to include other types of hoaxes (for example, alleged anthrax) which cause distress and severe disruption.

Cut off Terrorists from their funds:

• Ensure controls equivalent to and building on those in the new Proceeds of Crime Bill apply in all situations where funds may be used to finance terrorism. Includes an obligation on the financial sector to report where there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect terrorist financing.

• Allow immediate, targeted action to freeze the assets of overseas individuals or groups that carry out or support terrorist acts where neither the UN nor EU has yet agreed a course of action, or in cases where it is appropriate for the UK to impose sanctions unilaterally.

• Give the power to freeze assets at the start of an investigation, reducing the risk that funds will be used or moved.

Strengthen current legislation relating to chemical, nuclear and biological weapons and ensure the protection and security of aviation and civil nuclear sites:

• Improve the enforcement of aviation security, including new powers enabling the removal and arrest of people in restricted areas; the detention of aircraft for security reasons and making it an offence to falsely claim to be an approved air cargo agent.

• Allow officers to stop, detain question, and search people either travelling or believed to be travelling by aircraft within the UK. This would have a powerful preventative and disruptive effects on terrorist or suspected terrorists travelling within the United Kingdom.

• Make it an offence to aid or abet the overseas use or development of chemical, nuclear, biological or radiological weapons. It will also introduce offences for biological and nuclear weapons equivalent to those in the Chemical Weapons Act 1996.

• Enable police officers from the British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police and UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary to protect the public from acts of crime and terrorism in areas outside their current jurisdictions.

• Ensure that laboratories holding stocks of potentially dangerous diseases adhere to the highest standards of security in view of the potential threat from terrorism.

The Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act received Royal Assent on 14 December 2001.

To download the Act in full click here.