Overview of the Act
- The Queen’s speech on 21 June 2017 included a commitment to review the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy "to ensure that the police and security services have all the powers they need, and that the length of custodial sentences for terrorism-related offences are sufficient to keep the population safe". Part 1 of the Act gives effect to legislative proposals arising from the review. The measures in Part 1 will:
- Amend certain terrorism offences to update them for the digital age, to reflect contemporary patterns of radicalisation and to close gaps in their scope;
- Strengthen the sentencing framework for terrorism-related offences and the powers for managing terrorist offenders following their release from custody, including by increasing the maximum penalty for certain offences, to ensure that the punishment better reflects the crime and to better prevent re-offending;
- Strengthen the powers of the police to prevent terrorism and investigate terrorist offences.
- In addition, in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on 4 March 2018 using a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, Part 2 of the Act provides for a new power to harden the United Kingdom’s defences at the border against hostile state activity.
