Section 44 stopped in its tracks by court ruling
The government has suspended the “stop and search” powers of s 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Section 44 allowed assistant chief constables to secretly designate areas for stop and search, without suspicion by a police constable. Designations lasted 28 days but have been made on a rolling basis for years at a time.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in January that s 44 violates the right to respect for private life guaranteed by Art 8, in Gillan and Quinton v the United Kingdom [2010] ECHR 28.
The case arose from an arms fair in the Docklands area of East London in September 2003 where journalists and peace protestors were subject to stop and search by police. A challenge revealed that the whole of Greater London had been secretly designated for stop and search without suspicion on a rolling basis since 2001.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, says: “Liberty welcomes the end of the infamous s 44 stop and search power that criminalised and alienated more people than it ever protected. We argued against it for ten years and spent the last seven challenging it all the way to the Court of Human Rights.”
Law Society President Robert Heslett says: “Police powers must be proportionate and respect fundamental human rights, otherwise they are open to abuse and can risk creating disrespect of the police among law-abiding citizens.”
Announcing the new plans, Home Secretary Theresa May said: “To comply with the judgment, but avoid pre-empting the review of counter-terrorism legislation, I have decided to introduce interim guidelines for the police. I am therefore changing the test for authorisation for the use of s 44 powers from requiring a search to be ‘expedient’ for the prevention of terrorism, to the stricter test of it being ‘necessary’ for that purpose.”
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