Abolishing control orders a grave error, says ex-terror laws watchdog
Lord Carlile says tighter restrictions would help prevent atrocities such as Manchester bombing
ABOLISHING control orders to monitor possible terror suspects was a “grave mistake” and the controversial sweeping powers may have saved dozens of lives when they were in force, according to a former terrorism law watchdog.
Lord Carlile of Berriew urged Theresa May to use their replacements “to their full effect now” – although the crossbench peer and leading QC said the less strict terrorism prevention and investigation measures (TPIMS) were not as able to manage potentially dangerous terror suspects as the original control orders.
He blamed Nick Clegg, then deputy Prime Minister, for pushing to repeal control orders in 2011 and said Salman Abedi was exactly the sort of person who should have been on a control order or strengthened TPIM.
It also emerged yesterday that a ma- jor anti-terror power introduced by David Cameron to prevent British jihadis from returning to the country after fighting with Isil has never been used.
Temporary Exclusion Orders (TEOS) were brought in two years ago amid mounting concerns about the number of battle-hardened British jihadists coming back from Syria and Iraq.
Control orders were introduced in 2005 to impose rigid restrictions – akin to house arrest – on terror suspects who could not be prosecuted or deported. The Government of the day wanted to give the police and security services the ability to keep tabs on suspects who had not been charged with a crime because evidence against them was based on sensitive sources or on telephone taps which are not permissible evidence in the UK.
A number of British Libyans from Manchester, where Abedi and his family lived, were among those placed on control orders in the last decade. There are claims several Libyans in Britain had their orders relaxed, allowing them tojoin the Libyan revolution and fight against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The orders were abolished by the coalition Government in 2012 amid concerns they breached civil liberties and human rights.
Lord Carlile, who from 2001 to 2011 was the UK’S independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said: “In my view control orders worked very well in the period between 2005 and 2011.”
He said though there had been accusations they were illegal, they had been subject to review by senior judges and upheld by courts. He said: “Control orders remained legal and it was an entirely political act removing them. The political act was forced on the coalition Government by Nick Clegg.”
A total of 52 people had been put on control orders, with 23 of them forced to relocate to keep them away from associates, or given restrictions on their use of the internet.
He went on: “I believe that may have saved dozens of lives and my view is that it was a grave mistake by the coalition Government to remove control orders and to produce something more dilute. I do wish at least that TPIMS would be used to their full effect now.”
He added: “I do think that the Manchester experience demonstrates that the sort of people who should be subject to control orders or Tpims-plus are people like this perpetrator.”
Currently only seven people are subject to the watered-down TPIMS. Lord Carlile said if the authorities put 20 to 30 people on strict TPIMS, “I believe the country would be a safer place”.
Ben Wallace, the security minister, said TPIMS were part of a range of measures which also included seizing passports and stripping people of citizenship when they go abroad to fight.
He said the newer measures struck a better balance between civil liberties and security than control orders, which Mr Wallace said “didn’t seem to be lawful”.