Human rights—Privacy—Stop and search provisions

European Court of Human Rights, Judges Garlicki (President), Bratza, Bonello, Mijovic, Hirvela, Bianku and Vucinic, and L Early (Section Registrar), 12 January 2010

The powers of authorisation and confirmation as well as those of stop and search under ss 44 and 45 of the Terrorism Act 2000  are neither sufficiently circumscribed nor subject to adequate legal safeguards against abuse. They accordingly constitute a violation of the right to privacy under Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention).

The applicants were each stopped and searched by police officers under s 45 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (TA 2000). Under that section the power to stop and search could be exercised only for the purpose of searching for articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism and could be exercised whether or not the constable had grounds for suspecting the presence of such articles. There was no requirement that the constable have a