News Round-up in the United Kingdom

In October 2006, the House of Lords will vote on the Government’s Police and Justice Bill. The proposed law would establish a National Policing Improvement Agency whose mandate would include identifying and disseminating good practices. Composition criteria and method of appointment to police authorities would be simplified under the law, and police authorities would be given new functions and powers. The Home Secretary would also be able to confer powers upon the police authorities by issuing orders. For example, a police authority could be ordered to monitor its force’s performance, or to promote diversity. The law would also create a standard set of powers for Community Support Officers across England and Wales. In addition to the National Policing Improvement Agency, the law would create a mechanism called the ‘Community Call for Action’ that enable neighbourhoods to request action on a community safety issue that they believe the police have failed to address adequately.

Two of the country’s most senior black policemen have alleged that racism and inequality within the police forces continues. They were speaking on the occasion of the first International Black Police Conference in Manchester in August. Complaints include that ethnic minorities currently make up only 3.7 per cent of the service, and that senior police officers sanction racial profiling of black youths, which they say is unnecessary labelling that leads to criminalisation merely due to race. Fears of racial, ethnic or religious profiling by the police have grown in recent times in the context of anti-terror investigations in the United Kingdom.

Prisons

In July 2006, a joint Metropolitan Police and Prison Service report claimed that around 1,000 prison officers across England and Wales were involved in corruption, ranging from accepting cash bribes to move inmates to more comfortable conditions to drug smuggling. Fourteen police officers have been suspended from the Pentonville prison in North London pending investigation into allegations of corruption, including trafficking in mobile phones and cannabis, and ‘inappropriate relationships’ with inmates. The Chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, Colin Moses, called for more stringent methods of vetting police officers and for an external investigation. The shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, also spoke out, saying it was alarming that the suspension had triggered an overcrowding crisis. Prison inmates in England and Wales hit a new record on 11 August when they numbered 79,094 which is only 705 spaces short of total capacity.

Fighting Terrorism

In two cases on 1 August 2006, the Court of Appeal found that ‘control orders’ used by the government to detain terror suspects (for whom there is not enough evidence for conviction) within their homes where they are also banned from communicating with others deny an individual’s right to liberty. Control orders are thought to be currently used on 15 individuals, both British and foreign nationals. The Court of Appeal found that subjecting people to curfews and restricting where they can live amounts to imprisonment. Appeals to the House of Lords are expected. If the Government loses it may be forced to abolish the control order system or decide to derogate from Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the right to liberty.

In its 24th report issued on 1 August, entitled Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights: Prosecution and Pre-Charge Detention, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights criticised recent Home Affairs Select Committee views that terror suspects should be held for up to 28 days before being charged as a preventive measure, even if evidence leading to prosecution is not gathered during their detention. It also urged the Government to bring terror suspects into the courts by turning intelligence data into prosecution evidence, which would assist in preventing future terror attacks. It also recommended increased parliamentary scrutiny of the security and intelligence agencies regarding Government claims based on intelligence information.