Recent events involving Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and Al Qaeda show that the terrorist threat to the UK is as grave as at any point in the past thirteen years. Interpol have the resources and experience to build a platform and the UK must take the lead in bringing others to the table. However, ensuring public safety cannot be the sole purview of the counterterrorism command and the security service, it is a responsibility in which all UK citizens and companies take a share. Stopping British men and women going to become foreign fighters, in Syria and other theatres of conflict, and engaging with them when they return is vital to avoid endangering the security of the UK. Whether in classrooms, local community centres, or through the global reach of the internet and social media, a clear message needs to be sent to those at risk. The agencies are at the cutting edge of sophistication and are owed an equally refined system of democratic scrutiny. It is an embarrassing indictment of our system that some in the media felt compelled to publish leaked information to ensure that matters were heard in Parliament. The Intelligence and Security Committee should be given a democratic mandate in the same way as other Select Committees

Since 2010 the Home Secretary has set out an ambitious plan for the new landscape of policing. However, more progress has to be made to declutter the landscape and ensure that the organisations created meet the rapidly evolving challenges facing 21st century policing. Force mergers are clearly back on the agenda. The College of Policing was a great idea that has both vision and purpose. However, numerous hurdles, weak foundations, and an unrepresentative board have hindered its ability to function to its full potential. In time, the College has the power to fashion a new concept of policing. For the local bobby, he or she needs a certificate of policing that is affordable, an oath that is binding and ethics that are ingrained within its DNA, and training that is practical, however at the moment none of this exists. The NCA has been a success, and has proved to be more responsive and more active than its predecessor SOCA, but it is not yet the FBI equivalent that it was hailed to be. Its reputation has been damaged by the unacceptably slow response to the backlog of child abuse cases sent to it by Toronto Police. The NCA must establish practical benchmarks against which its performance can be assessed. Its current asset recovery is not of a sufficient volume when set against its half a billion pound budget.

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy examines a comprehensive range of counterterrorism policies, strategies, and practices across dozens of states and actors around the world. It covers the topics of terrorism and counterterrorism both thematically and by region, allowing for discussions about the underpinning dynamics of these fields, consideration of how terrorism and counterterrorism are evolving in the modern period, and in-depth analyses of individual states and non-state actors, and their approaches to countering terrorism and terrorist threats. It draws upon a multidisciplinary range of established scholars and upcoming new researchers from across multiple fields including political science and international relations, sociology, and history, examining both theory and practice in their respective chapters. This volume is an essential resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

This edited collection addresses a number of free speech vs security concerns that are engaged by counter-terrorism law and policy makers across a number of liberal democracies, and explores the delicate balance between free speech and the censoring of views that promote hatred or clash with fundamental democratic values. It does this by looking at the perspectives and level of disagreement between those who consider today’s counter-terrorism and extremism strategies to be a soft and liberal approach, and those who believe these strategies disproportionately impact freedom of expression and association and non-violent political dissent. The contributors include academics, practicing lawyers, and think-tank analysts who examine whether universities and schools incubators of violent radicalism and debate, and whether the views of ‘extremist’ speakers and hate preachers need to be censored. Outside the UK, critical discussion of the regulation of counter-terrorism, extremism, and free speech in other liberal democracies is also offered. This book will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners with interests in extremism, terrorism, civil rights, and freedom of speech.

Counter-terrorism is now a permanent and sprawling part of the legislative and operational apparatus of the state, yet little is known about the law and practice of how it is reviewed, how effective the review mechanisms are, what impact they have or how they interact with one another. This book addresses that gap in knowledge by presenting the first comprehensive, critical analysis of counter-terrorism review in the United Kingdom, informed by exclusive interviews with policy makers, politicians, practitioners and civil society.

More than merely describing the evolution of human rights and civil liberties law, this classic textbook provides students with detailed and thought-provoking coverage of the most crucial developments in the field, clearly explaining the law in context and practice. Updated throughout for this new edition, Fenwick on Civil Liberties and Human Rights considers a number of recent major changes in the law – in particular proposals to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, and the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 – whilst also contextualising the impact of reforms on hate speech and contempt due to advances in new media. Comprehensive and authoritative, this textbook offers an essential resource for students on human rights or civil liberties courses, as well as a useful reference for students and scholars of UK Public Law.

The Committee supports the proposal to introduce a power for the Commission to issue a statutory warning to a charity as a useful tool that falls in between issuing guidance and the opening of an inquiry. The statutory warning process should include safeguards on the face of the Bill including limiting the circumstances in which a warning could be ......

This collection of essays by leading academics, lawyers, parliamentarians and parliamentary officials provides a critical assessment of the UK Parliament's two main constitutional roles-as a legislature and as the preeminent institution for calling government to account. Both functions are undergoing change and facing new challenges. Part 1 (Legislation) includes chapters on Parliament's emerging responsibilities for pre-legislative scrutiny of government Bills and for evaluating proposed legislation against explicit constitutional standards. The impact on legislation of the European Union and the growing influence of the House of Lords are also examined. Part 2 (Accountability) investigates how Parliament operates to scrutinise areas of executive action previously often shielded from effective parliamentary oversight, including national security, war-making powers and administrative justice. There are also chapters on parliamentary reform, including analysis of the House of Commons 'Wright reforms', parliamentary sovereignty, privilege and the European Convention on Human Rights, Euroscepticism, and parliamentary sovereignty and the regulation of lobbyists. The book will be of interest to anyone who is curious about the work of Parliament and is aimed at legal academics, practitioners and political scientists.

Sustainable finance is a holistic approach to the sustainability development goals (SDG), so that the interdependence between environmental, social, and governance issues is unveiled. Sustainable finance takes into account the various challenges following from social change and sustainability, the evolution of capital markets, and the development of efficient risk management practices. Governance issues are an integral part of sustainable finance. However, academic literature has generally neglected to consider strategies to prevent and fight financial crimes as a crucial component of sustainable finance. The aim of this book is to focus on the interconnectedness between sustainable finance and preventing/fighting financial crime, not only as a crucial governance issue, but also as a deep challenge for social and even environmental issues. There is no really sustainable finance without developing strong and efficient means to fight financial crimes.

Police bail, or pre-charge bail, is a tool that allows the police to continue an investigation without detaining the suspect in custody. The two common situations in which the police use pre-charge bail are: a) where there is insufficient evidence to charge a suspect, and the police wish to continue to investigate without keeping the suspect in custody; and b) where the police have passed the file to the CPS for a charging decision. Being arrested and held on bail is no indication of guilt. It means the police have acted upon a reasonable suspicion, carried out an arrest, and wish to continue to investigate the allegation without holding the suspect in custody. Pre-charge bail has been criticised because there are no limits on the length of time that someone can be bailed or the number of times they can be re-bailed, and the suspect cannot challenge the imposition of bail. This concern has led to two consultations, the first in March 2014 by the College of Policing on the operational use of pre-charge bail, introducing common standards and standardising use across all forces. The second consultation, initiated by Home Office in December 2014, is considering the introduction of statutory time limits on the use of pre-charge bail.