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 (PDF) brings back stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 from today.
Home Secretary Theresa May announced on the 26 January 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.
On 1 March 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 make an authorisation 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.”
Under Section 44 the police had to go to the Home Office for authorisation now the police will have a Code of Practice to follow.
Under Section 47A a “constable in uniform” will have the power “to stop a pedestrian” 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.
Indiscriminate stop and search powers did not stop a single terror attack against Britain. What it did do was impact on hundreds of thousands of lives across the country.
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.
Marc Vallée is a Documentary Photographer 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 Vallée
Tags: Home Office, Section 44, Section 47A, Stop & Search, Terrorism Act 2000
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