The British Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, yesterday apologised to parliament over a "technical defect" in the drafting of orders under the 1989 Prevention of Terrorism Act. The "defect" rendered key sections of the PTA legislation unenforceable since March of last year. As a result of the error, terrorist charges against an Algerian man in London have been withdrawn.
The mistake in the drafting of continuance orders under Section 16 of the PTA was described by Mr Straw as a "regrettable error", for which he took ultimate responsibility as Home Secretary.
The error was not spotted during two annual PTA renewal debates in parliament, one in 1998 and the other earlier this year.
The problem arose when officials at the Home Office amended the PTA last year, withdrawing the power to impose exclusion orders. However, in altering the Act, legislation making it an offence to possess articles for suspected terrorist use and an offence to collect information likely to be useful in carrying out acts of terrorism were also excluded. The mistake means that since March 22nd, 1998, these sections of the Act have not been in force.
Mr Straw said that the error did not relate to Irish terrorism and, although six people had been charged under Section 16 since it came into force in 1995, no one had been convicted under the relevant section of the Act while it was ineffective.
The error was drawn to Mr Straw's attention following an article written by an unnamed author in last month's issue of Criminal Law Week. New orders restoring the legislation will be debated in parliament later today.
The Home Secretary also indicated that the government expects to receive a claim for compensation from the Algerian man, who was held in custody for several months.