Coalition Government suspends Terrorism Act "Stop and Search" powers (Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats)

Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats <info@wantagelibdems.org.uk>

Coalition Government suspends Terrorism Act "Stop and Search" powers

July 9, 2010 11:13 AM

Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords protest the restrictions on demonstrating outside Parliament during the passage of the Serious and Organised Crime Act.

Liberal Democrat peers protest at the restrictions on demonstrating outside Parliament

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, has welcomed the Home Secretary's decision to suspend use of "Stop and Search". This widely discredited power, that allowed blanket stop and search without any suspicion of terrorism, was designated in secret by senior police officers and past Home Secretaries often on a rolling basis across whole counties of England and Wales. Ms Chakrabarti said: "Liberty welcomes the end of the infamous section 44 stop and search power that criminalised and alienated more people than it ever protected. We argued against it for ten years and spent the last seven challenging it all the way to the Court of Human Rights.

"It is a blanket and secretive power that has been used against school kids, journalists, peace protesters and a disproportionate number of young black men. To our knowledge, it has never helped catch a single terrorist. This is a very important day for personal privacy, protest rights and race equality in Britain."

In January of this year a seven year Liberty legal challenge (Gillan and Quinton V the United Kingdom) resulted in the Court of Human Rights ruling that section 44 violates the right to respect for private life guaranteed by Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights.

The case arose from an arms fair in the Docklands area of East London in September 2003 where journalists and peace protesters were subject to lengthy stop and search and prevented from attending a demonstration. Liberty's challenge revealed that the whole of Greater London had been secretly designated for stop and search without suspicion on a rolling basis since 2001.

Prior to the General Election, the previous Government made a last ditch appeal to the Grand Chamber of the Court of Human Rights which was roundly refused. Continued use of the power would only have left both the public and police under confusion about a law that was ripe for misuse and further legal challenges.

Commenting on the announcement, Tom Brake MP, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs, Justice and Equality, said: "This is a very welcome announcement. Section 44 was an unreasonable power, applied in an indiscriminate way. This change strengthens our civil liberties, building on a longstanding commitment from Liberal Democrats. When the Labour benches attacked the coalition for what they described as an obsession with defending civil liberties, it just highlighted their dangerous obsession with eroding them."

To find out more, visit Liberty's website at http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news-and-events/1-press-releases/2010/08-07-10-liberty-welcomes-demise-of-section-44-stop-and-search-after-long-.shtml