BRITAIN:The Labour government's anti-terrorism strategy remained under pressure yesterday when the home affairs select committee said ministers had failed to make the case for holding suspects without charge beyond the current 28-day limit.
And MPs and peers on the joint select committee on human rights are today urging home secretary Jacqui Smith to abandon her plan to extend the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days in favour of a combination of other measures.
Committee chairman Andrew Dismore MP said: "If the government is genuinely concerned to build a national consensus on counter-terrorism policy, it should drop this ill-conceived proposal and work with us and others to identify better ways of ensuring terrorism suspects are successfully prosecuted."
The proposed combination of alternative measures could include post-charge questioning and the use of intercept evidence in court. However, the committee also expresses its doubts about a counter-proposal - advanced by the Conservatives and human rights group Liberty - that would see the existing Civil Contingencies Act used to declare a state of emergency allowing extended detention in particular circumstances.
Members of the committee express disappointment that MI5 director general Jonathan Evans was "reluctant" to give public evidence on the detention limit issue.
At the same time they say evidence from the crown prosecution service - which has so far managed "comfortably" to bring charges within the 28-day limit and is not calling for an extension - was "devastating" in terms of Ms Smith's argument for a higher limit.
The home affairs select committee said the Muslim community could come to regard a longer detention period as a form of internment if ministers failed to prove why it was required.
Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: "We saw no evidence that there was a case for extending beyond 28 days. The home secretary herself told us that only six out of 71 responses to the government's proposals were supportive. This was a surprisingly small number." Ms Smith has not argued that the case for extending has been proven in terms of cases already dealt with, but is rather urging MPs to provide in advance for a situation she is certain will arise at some future point in which the authorities will not be able to complete a complex investigation within the permitted time.
However, her Conservative shadow David Davis insisted: "The home secretary should realise that all the evidence so far has undermined, not supported, the case for extension. She should now focus her efforts on implementing practical measures, to get the best use of the current 28-day period - like our proposals for post-charge interview, use of intercept evidence and enhanced sentences for withholding encryption keys."