What are control orders?
They allow the Home Secretary to impose restrictions on a person suspected of involvement in terrorist related activity.
What restrictions?
Up to 16 hours a day confined to a house, a ban on access to the Internet, handing over a passport to the authorities, electronic tagging, restrictions on the use of landline and mobile phones, bans on leaving the UK or going to railway stations with connections to international routes, daily reporting to a police station. May also be required to worship at a specific Mosque and must permit the police to enter their homes and to search the premises.
How many people are currently on control orders?
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20.
Who are they?
The vast majority are known only by letters after the courts said they could not be identified because they had not been charged with an offence.
When were control orders introduced?
In March 2005 in response to a House of Lords ruling that it was illegal to hold terror suspects indefinitely in custody without charging them. The Law Lords ruled that holding the suspects under such conditions was a breach of their human rights.
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The control orders were introduced as a way of dealing with terror suspects whom they wished to deport but could not do so because if they returned home there was a risk they would be subject to torture or ill treatment which would breach the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
What happens if a control order is breached?
It is a criminal offence to break a control order punishable by up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine.
What alternative is there to using control orders?
The authorities could bring prosecutions in the courts and it could lift the ban on the use of intercept evidence. Lifting the ban is currently being looked at.