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Private firms to police UK terror laws

"The people who currently monitor electronic tags are predominantly low paid with minimal training. Do we really want national security in these hands?"

Harry Fletcher, probation officer's union spokesman

Private security staff are to be used to monitor Britain's controversial new anti-terrorist control orders in an attempt to save money, according to preparations being made to implement the policy by the Home Office.

Senior civil servants have been asked to assess the likely impact of the control orders which are being rushed through parliament.

Their report discloses that private security staff are to monitor the day-to-day surveillance of the terror suspects through electronic tagging.

The Home Office says the control orders will be cheaper than the ?40,000 annual cost of holding a terror suspect in a high-security prison such as Belmarsh in London.

But to save further money "where possible the monitoring of the orders will be contracted out to private companies as per existing arrangements with companies like Securicor and Group 4."

The disclosure of the likely involvement of private security firms comes as the Home Secretary Charles Clarke faces a make or break week to get his prevention of terrorism bill onto the statute book.

The existing powers allowing terror suspects to be detained in Belmarsh lapse on Monday.

Close aides last night denied claims that Clarke would announce fresh concessions to avoid an embarrassing defeat later today when the detailed operation of the bill comes under renewed attack from a cross-party alliance of peers in the House of Lords.

Instead he will wait and see what shape the bill is in when it returns to the Commons on Wednesday and what concessions -- if any -- he needs to make to head off a revolt even more dangerous than the one that ended with last week's narrow 14-vote governing Labor party majority.

The official Home Office assessment of the emergency anti-terrorist legislation prepared by senior civil servants also admits that only 10 to 20 terror suspects are expected to be issued with control orders each year.

"The figures for those expected to be subject to a control order are not expected to be substantial," the report says.

That conclusion appears to conflict with warnings from Tony Blair who spoke of hundreds of potential terrorists in a recent radio interview.

The former London Metropolitan Police commissioner, John Stevens, also said Sunday that at least 100 -- and probably nearer 200 -- al-Qaida trained fighters were "walking the streets of Britain" and potentially able to carry out devastating terror attacks.

Writing in the News of the World, Lord Stevens said that "the main opposition to the bill is from people who simply haven't understood the brutal reality of the world we live in."

The opposition Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, accused ministers of sending out contradictory messages about the scope of the legislation.

The Home Office report estimates it costs between ?100,000 and ?250,000 a year to keep 20 terror suspects under surveillance for a year, including the cost of tracking their bank accounts.

But it makes no assessment of the costs of imposing a full "house arrest" on a terror suspect, perhaps reflecting Clarke's determination to keep such powers in reserve.

Securicor and Group 4 are already contracted by the government to run the electronic tagging systems monitoring the movements of sex offenders and criminals released on parole from prison.

Harry Fletcher, of NAPO, the probation officers union, said if the government was right and "these people were amongst the most dangerous in the country, the monitoring should be the responsibility of the state and not private security companies. The information that will be available to these people will be highly sensitive.

"To have private companies in the intelligence loop could compromise that process. The people who currently monitor electronic tags are predominantly low paid with minimal training. Do we really want national security in these hands?"
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