Britain has declared an end to its policy of indefinite detention without trial introduced in the wake of the September 11 attacks. However a new system of "control orders" for dealing with terrorist suspects will be introduced instead.
The detention policy was ruled an abuse of human rights and illegal by Britain's highest court recently. Mr Charles Clarke today said detention orders would allow the imposition of curfews, electronic tagging and a requirement for suspects "to remain at their premises", he said.
Mr Clarke said: "Such orders would be preventative - designed to disrupt those seeking to carry out attacks, whether here or elsewhere, or who are planning or otherwise supporting such activities."
They will operate alongside a system of "deportation with assurances" - as human rights laws bar officials removing from the UK anyone who may face death or torture.
Human rights lawyer Mr Clive Stafford-Smith described the move as a "further abuse of human rights in Britain".
He made the comment today as he visited Paddington Green police station, in London, where
four detainees returned from the US's infamous prison for terror suspects, Guantanamo Bay, are being interviewed.
Mr Clarke also announced that the nine foreign terror suspects currently held without trial at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons will not be freed. They will remain certified "between now and when the new legislation is in place", he told the Hosue of Commons.
He said they "continue to pose a threat to national security".
The Home Secretary's keenly-awaited statement followed a ruling by Law Lords last month that the British government's anti-terror laws breached human rights. Rushed through within weeks of the September 11 attacks, the laws allow foreign terror suspects to be detained indefinitely without trial or charge.
Controversially, the new control orders will be imposed by the Home Secretary, and not by a court of law.
Mr Clarke said: "The Secretary of State would consider whether, on the basis of an intelligence assessment provided by the Security Service, there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that an individual is or has been concerned with terrorism.
"If the answer to this is yes, and he or she considers it necessary for the purposes of protecting the public from terrorist activities, he or she would impose controls on that individual."
PA