Lord Carlile’s report on the definition of terrorism, 2007

Government response Cm 7058, June 2007

The definition of terrorism triggers many powers, as well as contributing to the description of offences.

For example, it enables the authorities to:

deal with terrorist property
freeze assets and impose TPIMs
arrest a person reasonable suspected of being a terrorist
proscribe organisations
detain, question and search people at ports of entry

The already broad definition may be further extended by phrases such as (in the TPIM Act 2011) “terrorism-related activity”.

At the request of the Home Secretary, Lord Carlile conducted a comparative review of the definition of terrorism, and made a number of recommendations, some of which were accepted.