KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Hardline anti-terror laws will be proposed by Gordon Brown - including an extension of the 28-day limit on detention without charge - as the British Chancellor and Prime Minister-in-waiting sends a powerful signal that he will take a harder line on terrorism than Tony Blair. Brown wants:
* An extension of the 28-day limit on detention without charge. Blair had wanted to extend this to 90 days, but had to limit this to 28 days after a Commons rebellion.
* To make terrorism an aggravating factor in sentencing, handing judges greater powers to punish terrorism within the framework of the existing criminal law.
* To end the ban on questioning by police after a terrorist suspect has been charged. This would be subject to judicial oversight to ensure that it is correctly and sparingly used.
* To move towards allowing evidence from telephone-tapping to be admissible as evidence in court by holding a Privy Council review into whether the law should be changed.
* To increase the security budget, which has already doubled to more than £2 billion a year since the September 11 attacks, in the forthcoming spending review when a single security budget will be unveiled.
Brown yesterday signalled the changes when he appeared at a Labour party meeting in Glasgow. He said: "We must be vigilant for the benefit of security in this country. Anti-terror methods must be more sophisticated, with earlier intervention. That is why I support an increase in the length of detention to build up evidence across nations and I support post-charge questioning with an increase in police resources."
The Prime Minister-in-waiting wants to show there will be no let-up in the fight against terrorism and, to demonstrate that, he is prepared to wrongfoot the Conservatives as they question some of the Government's harsher measures.
But Brown will balance his tough message by indicating that the Government needs to do more to assure people that civil liberties are not being needlessly trampled on. He believes that the handling of detention without trial is a strong example of this.
The Chancellor believes it is possible to win support for increasing the 28-day limit if there is stronger judicial oversight of any decisions to extend an individual's detention on a week-by-week basis and an annual report to Parliament.
He believes there is a need to extend detention because of the volume of international evidence, most of which can be difficult to obtain from computers.
Brown will give Parliament a greater role in overseeing the intelligence services. He will place the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, which reports to the Prime Minister, on a similar basis to parliamentary select committees, which are accountable to MPs.
- OBSERVER
