Law - new material (73)
01 January 2011
101,000 Stop and Searches. No terror arrests, Robert Verkaik. The Independent 29.10.11. This article observes that not a single person, out of 101,248 people stopped and searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, was arrested for terrorism-related offences in 2009. Of the 506 arrests that resulted from these random searches, none were terrorist-related. Since July 2010, police are not allowed to stop and search people unless they have reasonable suspicion of them being a terrorist.
Sixth report of the independent reviewer pursuant to section 14(3) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, Lord Carlile. The Stationery Office (ISBN: 978 0 10 851010 6} 2011, pp. 96. This report includes the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s annual review of the operation in 2010 of the control orders system. He concludes, 1. “The control orders system, or an alternative system providing equivalent and proportionate public protection, remains necessary, but only for a small number of cases where robust information is available to the effect that the individual in question presents a considerable risk to national security, and conventional prosecution is not realistic”, and 2. “The control orders system continued to function reasonably well in 2010, despite some challenging Court decisions and unremitting political controversy.” http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/other/
9780108510106/9780108510106.pdf
Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales. Ministry of Justice, Consultation Paper CP12/10, November 2010, pp. 218. This “consultation Paper” presents the government’s widely criticised plans to slash Legal Aid in England and Wales by £350 m, removing funding from whole areas of law, including social welfare, debt and housing. Available as a free download at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/docs/legal-aid-reform-consultation.pdf
Response of a sub-committee of the judges’ council to the government’s consultation paper cp12/10, proposals for the reform of legal aid in England and Wales. Judges Council for England and Wales, 11.2.11, pp. 36. This paper expresses senior judges “numerous concerns” about the proposed cuts put forward in the Ministry of Justice’s consultation paper on Legal Aid. Its major concern “is that the proposals would lead to a huge increase in the incidence of unrepresented litigants, with serious implications for the quality of justice and for the administration of the justice system in terms of additional costs and delays – at a time when courts are having to cope in any event with closures, budgetary cut-backs and reductions in staff numbers.” The judges predict that the reforms will “give rise to a huge increase in the number of cases involving unrepresented parties”. http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Consultations/response-judges-council-legal-aid-reform-consultation.pdf