The proposed order ‘would take the form of a statutory court-imposed injunction, enabling the imposition of conditions, backed up by arrest and penal sanction for breach’, Hall said, in his fourth annual report, published last week. He envisages that typical conditions would include mandated attendance at sessions with an intervention provider and restrictions on phone and device usage. The order would not be ‘badged as a counter-terrorism measure’, he said, and would be suitable for individuals drawn into school shooting fantasies.
The statutory threshold would be the existence of terrorism material leading to reasonable grounds the person would be drawn into using or encouraging acts of violence.
Hall said online content is drawing increasing numbers of children into the terrorism sphere, and warned a ‘new approach’ to assessing risk is required to take account of individuals with poor mental health or neurodivergence.
He noted that while ‘a highly digitised society like the UK offers golden opportunities to private companies and public authorities alike to snoop on the population’, the vast majority of digital information was ‘useless’ to investigators.
Many discoveries created operational dilemmas since online discussions ‘could represent a genuine threat to life, or objectionable and racist fantasy that will lead nowhere,’ he said. ‘The risks of over-reaction and resource diversion are high: and the more stones are turned over online, the more potential terrorism is found.’
Hall said the current practice of ‘locking down’ a device where legal professional privilege was discovered—for example, a message from an individual’s solicitor—went further than necessary. He advised that examination of the device could continue so long as ‘reasonable steps’ were taken to isolate and exclude potentially privileged material.
