While Jonathan Hall found well-established processes were
already in place between police, probation and other
agencies to manage terrorism-risk offenders, he made a
series of recommendations to improve them.
Many of the suggested changes are already underway as
part of the government’s Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing
Bill. This includes plans to require terrorists under
probation supervision to undergo polygraph testing and
giving judges more discretion to decide a crime is
terror-related, so that they can impose a tougher
sentence.
The National Probation Service has also created a new
National Security Division which will double the number
of specialist officers dedicated to supervising
terrorism-risk offenders and strengthen its work with
police, prisons and the security services.
The government has also confirmed it will bring forward
new legislation to give police the powers to search
terrorist offenders on licence and obtain warrants to
check they are complying with the terms of their release,
for example by searching their home or seizing electronic
devices. The legislation will also ensure offenders who
pose a terror risk but were not convicted of a terrorist
offence can be supervised like those who were.
Lord Chancellor QC
MP said:
Keeping our communities safe is the Government’s first
priority and recent atrocities in France and Austria
have shown us that continued vigilance is needed.
Our security services, police, prison and probation
officers epitomise public duty and these new powers and
the Government’s considerable investment will help them
improve the tremendous, challenging work they do.
Home Secretary MP said:
This year we have witnessed horrific terrorist attacks
at home and abroad, which is why we have taken
significant steps to amend our powers and strengthen
our tools to tackle the threats our country faces.
The British public should be in no doubt that we will
take the strongest possible action to keep them safe,
and these new powers will further bolster the
improvements already being made by the
Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill.
Last month’s Spending Review committed over £900 million
for Counter-Terrorism Police next year, following this
year’s 10% increase. It also unveiled plans for a
world-leading Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre which
will bring staff from the security services,
counter-terror police and HM Prison and Probation Service
together into one location enhancing their ability to
discover and prevent attacks.
Jonathan Hall examined how police, prison and probation
staff, the security services and others work together
through Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements
(MAPPA) to reduce the risk that terrorists pose to the
public.
Other changes outlined in the government response to his
report include:
- The creation of a new category of MAPPA, specifically
for terrorism-risk offenders.
- Clarifying data protection laws to reinforce that any
organisation involved in the supervision of offenders
through MAPPA can share information.
- Every terrorism-risk offender will now spend up to 12
months in an Approved Premises when released from prison
on licence.
The government’s full
response can be found on GOV,UK.
