Smith repeats detention call
Jacqui Smith repeated calls to extend detention without charge in terrorism cases today, but admitted that there had not yet been any cases in which investigators had needed to exceed their current 28-day limit.
The home secretary told MPs that the international scope and growing technological complexity of terrorism cases meant that extended pre-charge detention would eventually become a necessity.
Appearing before the cross-party Commons home affairs select committee, Ms Smith said: “Given the trend of evidence, we believe that it is likely that, in a very small number of cases, there will come a time when more than 28 days will be needed to question somebody.”
Asked by the committee’s chairman, Keith Vaz, if there was any specific evidence that police had needed more than 28 days to investigate, she replied: “No, there isn’t.”
She said: “I accept that up to this point there has not been a case in which it has been necessary to go beyond 28 days.
“We have been very open about that. But we have made a case [for extending the limit] based on the increasing complexity, the increasing risk, the international links and the growing challenge of investigating terror plots.”
Ms Smith argued that parliament should consider extending the limit now on a “precautionary basis”, not in the wake of a future successful terrorist attack.
She pointed to the growing technological complications of terror investigations, often involving vast amounts of information written in foreign languages or hidden on encrypted computers.
In the case of three men convicted this year for internet-based incitement to murder, police were faced with computer hard-drives containing three terrabytes of data - equivalent to one third of the contents of the US Library of Congress, Ms Smith said.
Ms Smith’s appearance before the committee was the latest chapter in what could potentially become a rerun of the damaging parliamentary battle that broke out two years ago when Tony Blair tried to extend the limit to 90 days.
Mr Blair suffered his only parliamentary defeat over the matter, when MPs instead allowed the limit to be doubled from 14 days to 28.
Since then 11 individuals suspected of terror-related offences have been held for up to 28 days.
Eight were subsequently charged, according to the Home Office.
In an apparent demonstration of the government’s wariness about another defeat, Ms Smith did not specify a new upper limit at today’s hearing.
Geoff Hoon, the chief whip, said yesterday that there would have to be a “proper debate” in the country and in the Commons before the 28-day period could be extended.
Mr Hoon said he wanted to see a “national discussion” on the proposed increase.
But human rights activists and opposition MPs expressed disappointment with Ms Smith’s comments today.
The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said: “Yet again we see the home secretary forced to concede there is no evidence of a need to extend detention without trial beyond 28 days.
“Yet again we are offered only speculation about hypothetical scenarios - for which there already exists perfectly adequate laws, if the government has the resolve to use them.”
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights lobby group Liberty, warned that Britain could be heading for a state of “permanent emergency”.
She called for alternative measures, such as questioning suspects after they have been charged and accepting phone taps as evidence, and said that existing legislation allowed the government to extend pre-charge detention when the police were overwhelmed by multiple terror plots.
“The home secretary’s revelation that the case has not been made for extending pre-charge detention will be met with considerable surprise.
“There has been so much posturing by so-called experts that few people have remembered to ask for the hard evidence before any change is made,” she said.
