Terror re-housing plan revealed

1 September 2011 Last updated at 11:33 ET

Control orders were introduced under the former Labour government in 2005

Ministers are planning draft emergency measures to relocate terror suspects months after pledging to scrap a similar power known as control orders.

Ministers have published a draft bill to use relocation or other restrictions in exceptional circumstances.

The power to move a suspect to a new home was ditched folllowing a review by the coalition government.

Critics say the incoming Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) are weak.

Tpims are the proposed replacement for control orders which are due to be scrapped at the end of the year.

Ministers say the new system is a better balance between monitoring suspects and allowing them liberties because they have not been charged with an offence.

The new system removes the home secretary’s power to forcibly relocate a suspect to another city, a measure that has been used against at least five controlees since 2005.

Some of the current controlees have been moved to other locations, decisions that judges have upheld as essential for public protection.

In each case, the men would be allowed to return home once control orders are replaced in January 2012.

However, the Home Office has now published a draft bill, to be held in reserve, which would reintroduce the power in exceptional circumstances.

“The Enhanced TPIM Bill provides powers for the home secretary to impose enhanced TPIM notices specifying more stringent restrictions than those available under the TPIM Bill, if approved by Parliament,” said the Home Office.

“These include the power to relocate the individual without their consent to a different part of the country, geographical boundaries, and tighter restrictions on association and communications.”

The draft bill was always a possibility because the coalition’s review of counter-terrorism laws concluded that there may be exceptional circumstances when additional powers would be needed to control suspects.

Documents published by the Home Office describe exceptional circumstances as a moment when “we are facing a terrorist threat that cannot be managed by any other means.”

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.