The British government has announced plans to consolidate the existing temporary anti-terrorism legislation and replace it with permanent UK-wide anti-terrorism measures. In a statement to the House of Commons yesterday, the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said the "limited utility" of exclusion orders made under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) persuaded the government to allow the powers to lapse when the Act came up for renewal next March. Twelve exclusion orders - 10 against alleged IRA terrorists and two against alleged loyalist terrorists - have been revoked.
Exclusion orders, Mr Straw said, "have not only exposed the UK to severe criticism from our friends, they also provide an easy argument for the apologists for terrorism to use against us".
Mr Straw also confirmed, as the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, indicated at the Labour Party Conference this month, that the British government is to scrap the power of internment without trial. The government would take "a fresh look" at the temporary antiterrorist legislation and there would be a consultation exercise to bring proposals before parliament in March. Although the government would renew the PTA and the Emergency Provisions Act (EPA) next year, Mr Straw promised significant changes in anti-terrorism legislation. However, new legislation replacing both Acts is not expected before 2000.
Changes proposed by the government include a judicial element in the detention of terrorist suspects, and Mr Straw said he would bring "careful thought" to the law prohibiting the use of evidence obtained by wire-tapping in court and changes in the use of the witness protection scheme in the North. It is understood the consultation process would address the funding of terrorist organisations.
Most of the groundwork for the consultation exercise has been carried out for the government under the recommendations of a report by Lord Lloyd of Berwick, published last October. Official sources insist the government will consult on the basis of balancing counter-terrorism requirements and the assessment of the security situation in Northern Ireland and the UK as a whole.
However, mindful of the need for "flexible and robust" antiterrorism legislation, Mr Straw said the time had come for permanent legislation "to deal with the continuing threat from terrorism and the terrorist.
"In Northern Ireland there has, of course, been a very welcome change for the better . . . There is real cause for optimism that a lasting peace may be achieved in Northern Ireland." But he warned: "The ceasefire in Northern Ireland and the possibility of achieving lasting peace there does not mean that we no longer need special legislation to investigate, to disrupt, and to counter terrorism."
On internment, Mr Straw insisted the government is not "ambivalent".
The shadow home secretary, Dr Brian Mawhinney, expressed his party's intention to "stand with" the government in resolutely rejecting terrorism and international terrorism. However, he asked the government for reassurance that the outcome of the talks process would not influence the drafting of permanent anti-terrorist legislation.
Mr Straw insisted there was no direct linkage between the talks process and the legislation. The government, he stressed, was seeking to establish "robust" legislation which would be flexible enough to deal with the threat of terrorism during periods of peace "and if the ceasefire breaks down".
However, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, while welcoming the need to consolidate legislation, said the reality of the government's proposal was a "relaxation" in the approach to counter-terrorism. Mr Trimble, who has long campaigned for UKwide anti-terrorism legislation, accused the government of "considerable naivety" in its view that terrorists would not once again resort to violence if the outcome of the peace process did not satisfy them.
The Alliance leader, Lord Alderdice, welcomed the British government's statement. "Northern Ireland people have, I believe, always felt unhappy about a form of internal exile for British citizens within their own country," he said.