On 12 Jan 2010, the European Court of Human Rights in Gillan & Quinton v UK (2010) EHRR 45 ruled that key anti-terrorist stop and search powers violated the right to respect for private life. The UK Government reacted to the ruling by requesting a referral to the Court’s Grand Chamber. On 30 Jun 2010 that request was refused by the Court and its decision is final. Accordingly, the litigation has finally concluded with a resounding victory for the applicants.
In a widely-drawn ruling the ECtHR unanimously found that police powers to stop and search under s44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 without reasonable suspicion were “neither sufficiently circumscribed nor subject to adequate legal safeguards against abuse”. The Court held that the public nature of such searches did not disengage the relevant privacy rights. The Court was also concerned at the potential for the discriminatory use of the powers against black persons and persons of Asian origin.
Although the Court did not need to decide the remaining complaints under Articles 5, 10 and 11 of the Convention, it made some important observations concerning deprivations of liberty in connection with coercive police powers.
Ben Emmerson QC, Rabinder Singh QC and Alex Bailin QC were involved in the case.
Liberty press release available here.
You can view further related news items on The Guardian, The Telegraph and the BBC websites.
On the 8th July 2010, the Government announced the reform of the s44 powers. See BBC News and The Guardian website for details.