CHAPTER 2:
The terrorist threat
2.1 When the then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins (now Lord Jenkins of Hillhead) introduced the first Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act in 1974, he referred to the powers it granted as "unprecedented in peacetime" but "fully justified to meet the clear present danger". The Act was brought in soon after the Birmingham pub bombings that same year, in which 21 people died and over 180 were injured, and which gave rise to a tide of public revulsion against the terrorists behind such acts. Earlier, the Report of Lord Diplock's Commission had led to the passage of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973. As well as providing special powers for the security forces there, the 1973 Act established different arrangements, including mode of trial, for terrorist cases. Both Acts were made subject to annual review and to renewal by Parliamentary debate. Twenty four years later, those temporary powers are still on the statute book - with a number of modifications - and successive reviewers of the Act have without exception agreed that the threat posed by terrorism has remained real and serious enough to justify renewal of the powers. The Government believes that it is time to take a serious and thorough look at what is a continuing - but changing - threat from terrorism, and to make permanent in law the powers needed to combat it.
2.2 The threat from Irish terrorism, which first gave rise to these powers, has remained for many years. Between 1969 and 30 November 1998, 3289 people have died in Northern Ireland as a direct result of Irish terrorism (including the 29 who died as a result of the Omagh bomb on 15 August this year) and between 1972 and the end of November 1998, 121 people have been killed in Britain in incidents of Irish terrorism. The peace process, the Belfast Agreement on Good Friday this year and subsequent progress including elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly mean that the outlook in Northern Ireland is changing, and suggest that the days of widespread violence and terrorism may soon be gone for good. Both the British and the Irish Governments are working hard to give lasting peace in Northern Ireland every possible chance to take root. The overwhelming majority of people in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Republic voted to support the Agreement and many terrorist groups are maintaining their ceasefires. However, there are small numbers who remain opposed to peace and wedded to violence. So, even though the context is of a general movement towards lasting peace in Northern Ireland, it is too soon to be confident that all terrorism has been abandoned. These developments must be taken into account when considering the need for special powers to combat terrorism.
2.3 What is more, although the original Prevention of Terrorism Act was a direct response to Irish terrorism, in 1984 the legislation was extended to cover the growing threat from international terrorism. That need emerged as political conflicts abroad began to impact directly on the UK to such an extent that it was judged necessary to allow the police some (though not all) of the powers to tackle international terrorism which they already had in respect of Irish terrorism. International terrorism has had a significant and continuing impact on the UK. Between 1976 and November 1998, 94 incidents of international terrorism took place in the UK. In that period the bomb planted on Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie in 1988 killed 270 people, and another 26 people were killed in other incidents.
2.4 Lord Lloyd, in his report in 1996 on the future need for counter-terrorism legislation in the context of a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, was satisfied that even if peace in Northern Ireland were achieved there would remain a need for dedicated powers to counteract the terrorist threat to the UK from other sources. Appendix F of Lord Lloyd's report, prepared by Professor Paul Wilkinson, considered in detail the current and potential future threat to the UK. It draws attention to possible future changes in the terrorist threat to lives and property in the UK; changes which mirror what is happening across the world. For instance the last few years has seen a marked increase in terrorism motivated by religious idealism. One example of this is the use of Sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo underground in 1995 by the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult, which killed 12 people and affected up to 5,500. Another is the rise of Islamic extremism. As Professor Wilkinson notes in his report, today over a third of the world's active international terrorist groups are predominantly motivated by religious fanaticism. In framing future UK counter-terrorist legislation account must therefore be taken of the threat from international terrorism, whatever the motive behind it.
2.5 Professor Wilkinson's report also examines the threat from so-called "domestic" terrorist groups - that is indigenous groups prepared to engage in serious violence to further their cause (for example independence for a certain region or environmental concerns). In the UK extreme factions with Scottish and Welsh nationalist views posed a security threat during the 1970s and 80s, issuing threats and letter and parcel bombs to political figures and party headquarters. But violence by such groups has largely receded, with democratic political debate taking its place. The threat from some marginal but extreme elements of the animal rights movement continues to be of more concern to the Government. Animal rights extremists have in the past sent letter bombs to the leaders of major political parties, attacked Bristol University's Senate House with a high explosive bomb, targeted a veterinary surgeon and a psychologist with car bombs and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. Although the police have achieved a number of recent successes against them these have not deterred subsequent attacks. And "new causes" may be taken up by others to equally destructive effect. The shape of new counter-terrorist legislation needs to reflect the possible threat from indigenous groups too.
2.6 The advent of new technologies, advanced means of communication and ever-more sophisticated ways of moving money around have already influenced the way terrorists operate and will continue to do so. Terrorist organisers and fundraisers no longer have to be in the same country as their target or indeed as each other. Their communications to each other can be encrypted. And there is the potential, if the right targets are hit (such as strategic computer systems running banking or air traffic control operations), to affect thousands or even millions of people. Such technologies could not have been envisaged when the existing counter-terrorist legislation was framed over 20 years ago, but the powers made available in future must be adequate - and flexible - enough to respond to the changing nature of the terrorist threat both now and in the years to come.
Conclusion
2.7 In the language of the then Home Secretary introducing the PTA legislation in 1974, the Government believes that there exists now a clear and present terrorist threat to the UK from a number of fronts and that a terrorist threat is likely to continue to exist for the foreseeable future even when a lasting peace in Northern Ireland is achieved.
2.8 Having come to this conclusion, the Government believes that new counter-terrorist legislation is needed to take account of the changes in the nature of terrorism and the methods deployed. It also believes that this new legislation should be permanent - as is the case with the vast majority of criminal law. The annual renewal of current temporary anti-terrorist legislation, whilst useful in underlining the exceptional nature of the powers and the connection between their use and the prevailing terrorist threat, and providing an opportunity for annual scrutiny of the use of the powers, does not reflect the current reality that such powers are likely to be needed for the foreseeable future. The more transparent approach, which the Government proposes to adopt, is to introduce permanent legislation to apply throughout the UK to meet the general threat faced from terrorism, if necessary with additional temporary powers for Northern Ireland subject to annual review.
2.9 The rest of this paper examines the powers which the Government proposes should be contained in new counter-terrorist legislation.
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