LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 05.04.08. A police photographer from the Metropolitan Police’s Forward Intelligence Team documents the contents of a sketchbook as police conduct a stop and search on a man and a women in Trafalgar Square, London, England on Saturday 5th April 2008. Pro-Tibet demonstrators arrive in London ahead of protests due to take place along the route of the Olympic Torch on Sunday 6th April 2008. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.
“PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM – The Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011” – legislation.gov.uk
Yesterday the government laid a written ministerial statement to both houses of Parliament. The emergency measure, “Prevention And Suppression Of Terrorism – The Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011” brings back stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 from today.
Home Secretary Theresa May announced on the 26 January 2011 that the review of counter-terrorism powers made recommendation that the Government should consider whether the police needed new stop and search power more quickly.
Early this month Theresa May announced that, “given the current threat environment” she had “concluded that the police do need the powers more quickly” and that “the most appropriate way of meeting the legal and operational requirements concerning the counter-terrorism stop and search powers exercisable without reasonable suspicion is to make a remedial order” in the “interests of national security”.
The remedial order replaces Sections 44 to 47 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and with Section 47A.
From today Section 47A will give a “senior police officer” the power to seek an authorisation from the Home Office in “relation to a specified area or place” if the officer “reasonably suspects that an act of terrorism will take place” and “considers that the authorisation is necessary to prevent such an act.”
If authorisation is given a “constable in uniform” will have the power “to stop a pedestrian” without any reasonable suspicion in the specified area and to search them and “anything carried by them”.
This emergency measure brings back stop and search powers that could impact on photographers and journalists right to report and the right of a citizen to make a picture in a public place.
The timing should not go unnoticed, the largest protest against the governments austerity measures and enforced transfer of billions of pounds from the public sector to the private sector will be taking place on the 26th March 2011.
In January I told the British Journal of Photography:
“The devil is always in the detail, and after reading the Home Office review it is clear that the coalition government is planning to give the police new stop-and-search powers to get around the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling. I do not think for one minute that these new powers will protect photographers from harassment and abuse from the police on the streets of Britain, far from it.”
Tags: 26 March Counter-Terrorism Free Press Home Office Human Rights Media Freedom Media Restriction Media Workers Metropolitan Police Photography Photojournalism Police Press Freedom Protesters Protesting Section 44 Section 47A State State Repression Terrorism Terrorism Act The Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011 TUC War on Terror
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[...] and one of the organisers of the I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist! campaign. This article originally appeared on his blog.Posted by Marc ValléeTags: Home Office, Section 44, Section 47A, Stop & Search, Terrorism Act [...]
Dear All,
This & all the other so-called “anti-terrorist” legislation is completely unncessary as the police have long had extensive powers under the Defence of the Realm Act (Dora).
The real reason the Old Bill and the Far Right who run the Home Office don’t like Dora is because the case of anyone detained under that Act is automatically reviewed by the judiciary every six months – and the onus is on the Old Bill to prove that further detention is justified.
If the Home Office really wanted to end terrorism, then it should address the main cause of unrest in the Middle East: the unwillingness of Western governments to force the Israeli Far Right to accept an honourable resolution of the Palestinian question. Silly me, that would require Sir Humphrey to start using his classically-trained brain.
[...] “ConDem Government brings in emergency terrorism power to stop & search” – marcvallee.co.uk [...]
[...] I was on Radio 4‘s Today programme to debate the new stop and search power Section 47A. The new power came into force via an emergency remedial order on the 18 March [...]