UK Parliament committee rejects extension of pre-charge detention

10/10/2008

The Westminster Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights has�rejected key provisions of the British Government's�latest Counter-Terrorism Bill and�called on the government to delete the provisions in the Bill which would extend the maximum period of pre-charge detention for terrorism offences to 42 days.�In the introduction to its report, the committee�cites as reasons for its decision:

• the lack of any evidence which demonstrates that the level of threat from terrorism is growing;�
• no pressing need to extend further the maximum period of pre-charge detention when the existing power to detain beyond 14 days is so rarely used and had not been used for well over a year;
• the secretary of state's power to extend the maximum period of pre-charge detention to 42 days is too broad;
• the proposed safeguards relating to the use of the power are insufficiently strong to meet the human rights concerns which have been raised; and
• there is no need to make any provision for extending the maximum period of pre-charge detention beyond 28 days and, even if there were, the safeguards in the Bill are inadequate.

View the joint committee's report >

10 October 2008

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