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Terrorism suspect detention extension plans widely criticised
17 December 2007
Controversial plans to extend the current 28-day pre-charge limit for terrorism suspects to 42 days have received widespread criticism from MPs and peers.
When giving evidence to the home affairs select committee last week (11 December), Home Secretary Jacqui Smith came under fire from MPs who said only six of 71 consultations carried out had been in favour of the extension. Many top officers, including Sir Ian Blair, Met Commissioner, believe an extension is necessary to properly combat terrorism.
In a report this week, the committee also recommended the use of intercept evidence (phone tapping) to charge suspects as a possible temporary alternative, saying it was 'ridiculous' this was not already the case.
The joint committee on human rights also agreed. It said the safeguards written into the proposed extension would be 'virtually useless'.
The police service has said extra time is needed due to the increasing complexity of the cases it deals with. Giving evidence to the committee, Peter Clarke, deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, said: 'Without going too deeply into statistics, what we can say is... we have had fewer cases actually under investigation in the last year marginally, but the number of documents, exhibits, computers, telephones and the rest has increased. So the scale of each case is getting larger.'