Establishing a UK Privacy and Civil Liberties Board

The Counter Terrorism and Security Bill 2014 includes a new power to establish a statutory Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, which would support the role of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. This delivers on a commitment to establish a board that would provide further assurance to the public about the current counter-terrorism arrangements, including ensuring that legislation and policies have due regard for civil liberty and privacy concerns in the face of the threat to the UK.

This consultation therefore invites comments on the proposals and provides an opportunity for all interested parties to feed in thoughts and comments on matters relating to the organisation of the board, to ensure that it can fully achieve its intended aim.
 
You will need to download a copy of the consultation document and have it open as you answer the consultation questions in this online survey.   
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1. Remit and functions of review
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The Terrorism Act 2000 is the UK’s core piece of counter-terrorism legislation. It brought together and amended previous temporary legislation and in doing so it established a body of permanent terrorism law which was aimed at both domestic and international terrorism. However, this Act has been supplemented by further legislation over recent years, in response to a number of factors. These include: the shift from domestic (Northern Ireland-related) to international terrorism; changes in the level and nature of the terrorism risk (requiring powers which provide for intervention at an earlier stage); changes in the nature of the threat (for example, increasingly complex investigations involving more overseas links and greater use of technology) which require different powers; developments in technology (for example, requiring powers to deal with new forms of communication and encryption); and legal judgments. As this framework of legislation has developed, there has been an increasing need to ensure that new powers are subject to sufficient independent oversight, which has led to an expansion of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s role, both in terms of statutory responsibilities (see powers under TAFA 2010 and TPIMS Act 2011) and requests for the Independent Reviewer to carry out specific ad hoc reviews of individual areas.
 

1. To what extent do you agree or disagree that independent oversight enhances the fairness and effectiveness of counter-terrorism legislation and powers? *

 

2. Do you support the proposal to establish a statutory Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, which would support the role of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation? *

 

3. To what extent do you consider that a Privacy and Civil Liberties Board would add value to the oversight arrangements for counter-terrorism legislation and related powers? *

 

4. What, in your view, are the likely benefits of creating a Privacy and Civil Liberties Board? *

 

5. There are a number of essential features and requirements of any individual or body tasked with overseeing the effectiveness of UK counter-terrorism laws. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Board would support the Independent Reviewer to deliver against the following core objectives: 
  • review the operation of the key counter-terrorism Acts, including that they are sufficient to meet the threat and adequately take account of privacy and civil liberty concerns
  • advise the government on whether it considers government policy and its development, including new legislation, relating to the prevention of terrorism is sufficient to meet the threat and adequately takes account of privacy and civil liberty concerns
  • provide public assurance that the current arrangements ensure that the implementation of legislation and policies relating to the prevention of terrorism have sufficient regard to their impact on privacy and civil liberties as well as to the threat
  • carry out particular inquiries into the impact of particular issues or legislation relating to the prevention of terrorism, including at the direction of relevant Ministers
  • provide evidence to Parliamentary Committees and seek to inform public debate where possible
  • report regularly on its findings

Do you agree that the principles / objectives set out above fully encompass the key elements required for effective oversight of UK counter-terrorism laws and powers? *