November 1, 2007: Legality of Control Orders

Earlier this week, the Law Lords issued a decision upholding the legality of control orders.
The decision means that the orders can continue to be issued largely as they have been. The senior judges did decide that the government should review those orders that include an 18-hour curfew. Otherwise they left the orders unchanged.

Control orders place restrictions on an individual in order to stop their involvement in terrorist-related activities. So, for example, someone under a control order can be denied access to the internet, forbidden to associate with other people suspected of planning acts of terrorism, or be required to spend a certain number of hours each day at home.

These restrictions are tailored to tackle particular terrorist-related activity on a case-by-case basis. If, for example, a suspect is thought to be working with a group of people planning an act of terrorism, that person could, among other things, be forbidden from talking to members of that group.

In response to the decision, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith stated:

'I am pleased that the Law Lords have upheld the control orders regime, and judged that no existing control orders need to be weakened. I am disappointed that they have found against the control orders containing 18-hour curfews, which I feel were required to protect national security. I believe that today's ruling could allow us to impose curfews of up to 16 hours, which I will now consider.'

'I am also pleased that the Lords did not find that the review process in these cases had been unfair. I feel strongly that the protections already in place safeguard the rights of these individuals, while balancing the need to protect national security. It will now be for the High Court to review these cases and I hope that they will find the procedures to have been fair.'

'I will continue to take every available step necessary to protect the public from the very real threat we face from terrorism.'

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