Reports of former reviewers

The first independent post-legislative reviews of anti-terrorism legislation were conducted by Lord Shackleton (1978), Earl Jellicoe (1983) and Sir George Baker (1984).

Review was then placed on an annual footing. Yearly reviews were conducted by Sir Cyril Phillips (of 1984 and 1985), Viscount Colville QC (of 1986-1992), John Rowe Q.C. (of 1993-2000) and Lord Carlile Q.C. (of 2001-2009).

There have also been a number of independent reports of a forward-looking nature, not accessible through this site, notably the Diplock Report of 1972 (Cmnd 5185), the Gardiner Report of 1975 (Cmnd 5847) and the Lloyd Report of 1996 (Cm 3420).

A very brief commentary on these reports is in my working paper “Review of Terrorism Laws: Searchlight or Veil?”, written in February 2014 and available from the “speeches and articles” section of this website.

The Terrorism Acts in 2014 (September 2015)

My annual report on the operation of the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006 was laid before Parliament by the Home Secretary on the morning of Thursday 17 September.  You can download it here:

Terrorism Acts Report 2015 Print version

Terrorism Acts Report 2015_web version

The report is also available on the gov.uk site.  The Government’s response to the report, published on 8 November 2016, is here: I posted on it here. Read more…

A Question of Trust – Report of the Investigatory Powers Review (June 2015)

Introduction

“A Question of Trust”, the report of my Investigatory Powers Review under DRIPA 2014 s7, was laid before Parliament today.  It can be accessed below in print and web accessible versions, together with the accompanying press release and (so far as the authors were willing for it to be published) the evidence submitted to the Review in writing.  The Report is also  available free of charge from the following sites:

Reports from 1978 to 2001

The reports of independent reviewers from Lord Shackleton (1978) to John Rowe Q.C. (2001), together with Government responses, can be found on this external site.  The reports are in UK copyright libraries but most of them became available on the internet only in 2014, thanks to Mitch Hanley and a grant from Harvard University.

Lord Carlile’s control order reports, 2006-2011

Lord Carlile published six reports into the operation of the control order system provided for by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005.  They informed the annual parliamentary renewal debates that were required under that Act.  The PTA 2005 was repealed and replaced by the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011, which is also subject to annual review. Read more…