Pre-charge detention will revert to 14 days
Damian Green tells parliament that government will not extend the order which allows a 28 day limit to hold terror suspects without charge.
In the House of Commons today, Damian Green said that the maximum limit of pre-charge detention will revert to 14 days from 25 January.
He added that the Home Secretary will, on Wednesday 26 January, announce to the the findings from the wider review of counter-terrorism and security powers.
Exceptional circumstances
He said: ‘We are clear that 14 days should be the norm and that the law should reflect this. However, we will place draft, emergency legislation in the House library to extend the maximum period to 28 days to prepare for the very exceptional circumstances when a longer period may be required.’
Mr Green reiterated that the first duty of government is to protect the British public and ‘we will not do anything that risks our security.’
He added: ‘There is a difficult balance to be struck between protecting our security and defending our civil liberties - the outcome of our counter-terrorism powers review will strike that balance.’