UK Government unveils new protest laws to ‘crack down on dangerous disorder’

08 Feb 2024

‘Counter-protesters (left) and pro-Palestinian protesters in Trafalgar Square. 

Photo Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Protesters who climb over war memorials or try to hide their identity could face jail under Government plans to change the law.

Police in England and Wales will be given powers to arrest protesters who cover their face in a bid to avoid prosecution, while people who scale national monuments could face a three-month prison sentence and a £1,000 fine, as part of the proposals.

The measures – which will be added to the Criminal Justice Bill currently being considered by Parliament – will also make it illegal to carry flares and other pyrotechnics at protests amid efforts to “crack down on dangerous disorder”, according to the Home Office.

The right to protest is “no longer an excuse for certain public order offences”, the department said as it announced the plans on Thursday.

Right to protest

But campaigners have branded the measures a “threat to everybody’s right to protest”.

The move comes as police chiefs warned some protesters were “using face coverings to conceal their identities, not only to intimidate the law-abiding majority, but also avoid criminal convictions”.

Officers already have the power to ask people to remove face coverings at designated protests – where forces believe crimes are likely to occur.

But the new offence will allow police to arrest protesters who disregard their orders, with those who flout the rules facing a month behind bars and a £1,000 fine.

Under the reforms, possession of flares, fireworks and any other pyrotechnics – which the Home Office said had recently posed “significant risk of injury” and had been fired at police officers – at public processions and assemblies for protest will be made illegal, with perpetrators also facing a £1,000 fine.

Protesters will also no longer be able to cite the right to protest as a reasonable excuse to get away with “disruptive” offences, such as blocking roads, the department added.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “Recent protests have seen a small minority dedicated to causing damage and intimidating the law-abiding majority.

“The right to protest is paramount in our county, but taking flares to marches to cause damage and disruption is not protest, it is dangerous.

“That is why we are giving police the powers to prevent any of this criminality on our streets.”

Balance

Essex Police chief constable BJ Harrington, who leads the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s work on public order, welcomed the plans, adding that it will make sure officers “have the powers that we need to get balance right between the rights of those who wish to protest, and those impacted by them”.

The use of flares and pyrotechnics at protests is “rare” but “they are still extremely dangerous”, he said, adding: “Safety is our number one concern when policing these events, and the effective banning of these items during protests can only help in our mission to ensure that they take place without anyone coming to any harm.”

He stressed the powers would be used “when appropriate, proportionate, and necessary to achieve policing objectives”, but insisted police were not “anti-protest.”

“There is a difference between protest and criminal activism, and we are committed to responding quickly and effectively to activists who deliberately disrupt people’s lives with reckless and criminal acts,” he said.

Overreach

Akiko Hart, director of human rights group Liberty, said: “These new proposed anti-protest measures are a massive overreach by the Government and a threat to everybody’s right to protest.

“This is an outrageous attempt to clamp down on our fundamental right to stand up for what we believe in.

“Bringing in these powers put people at greater risk of being criminalised for exercising their right to protest – including disabled people, who in some situations have only felt comfortable protesting in public when wearing face coverings.

“It is extremely concerning that the Government is trying to impose even more conditions on not only when people can protest, but how they protest too.

“We all have the right to make our voices heard on issues that matter to us, but this Government has continually made it harder for us to do that.

“The Government must reverse this decision and drop these anti-protest and anti-democratic proposals.”

Liberty is embroiled in a legal battle with the Government over previously introduced “anti-protest powers”, with a High Court trial due to take place later this month, the group said.

The proposals will be introduced as amendments at the Bill’s report stage in the Commons.

Protesters face jail for wearing face masks or carrying flares under new crackdown

New blitz unveiled on people hiding their identity, using fireworks and blocking roads

Jane Dalton

Police will be given new powers to arrest protesters who wear face coverings under new laws cracking down on disorder, ministers have announced.

Demonstrators flouting an order to remove their mask could be jailed for a month and fined up to £1,000.

Anyone joining a protest will also be banned from carrying pyrotechnics, including fireworks, flares and smoke, and those using them could be arrested.


Pro-Palestinian supporters shout slogans and wave Palestinian flags
(AFP via Getty Images)

Causing disruption, such as blocking roads and people locking themselves to objects, will also be made criminalised under the sweeping crackdown, which targets environmental as well as political protesters.

Last November, fireworks were fired into crowds and towards police officers when pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with authorities in London after a demonstration.

Footage appeared to show flares being fired at a line of officers, prompting the Metropolitan Police to issue a dispersal order.

The force also issued an order giving officers the power to require someone to remove any item used to conceal their identity – such as a mask.

Police chiefs have previously warned that some protesters use face coverings to hide their identities to intimidate other people and avoid criminal convictions.

The new laws, in England and Wales, will allow officers “where police believe criminality is likely to occur” to arrest any protester who ignores an order to remove a mask.

Protesters will no longer be able to cite the right to protest as a reasonable excuse to get away with disruptive offences, such as blocking roads
The Home Office

Anyone who breaches an order may face a month behind bars and a £1,000 fine, the Home Office says.

“Protesters will no longer be able to cite the right to protest as a reasonable excuse to get away with disruptive offences, such as blocking roads,” according to officials.

Since 2021, the Conservatives have increasingly criminalised protest in response to direct action by environmental demonstrators.

But senior police and crime commissioners said then that the powers to crack down on protests were not needed and went too far, and the latest announcement is likely to prompt anger by campaigners and organisations for human rights, the climate and other causes.

Under the new measures, the possession of flares, fireworks and any other pyrotechnics at public processions and protests will be banned, with perpetrators facing £1,000 fine.

Climbing on war memorials will also be made a specific public order offence, carrying a three-month sentence and £1,000 fine.

In some recent cases, protesters have scaled national monuments.

Blocking roads will be criminalised
(PA Wire)

Home secretary James Cleverly said: “Recent protests have seen a small minority dedicated to causing damage and intimidating the law-abiding majority.

“The right to protest is paramount in our county, but taking flares to marches to cause damage and disruption is not protest, it is dangerous.

“That is why we are we giving police the powers to prevent any of this criminality on our streets.”

Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for public order, welcomed the proposals, saying: “As with all policing powers, these new powers will be used when appropriate, proportionate and necessary to achieve policing objectives.

“Policing is not anti-protest, but there is a difference between protest and criminal activism, and we are committed to responding quickly and effectively to activists who deliberately disrupt people’s lives with reckless and criminal acts.”

Since 7 October, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, there have been more than 1,000 protests and vigils, according to official figures, accounting for 26,000 police officer shifts between October 7 and December 17 alone, and 600 arrests.

Last year actions such as “locking on” were outlawed, and police were given powers to stop and search protesters for items such as padlocks and superglue.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 also made it easier to tackle public nuisance caused by protesters.

Police figures show that during last year’s Just Stop Oil campaign, 657 protesters were arrested under the Public Order Act 2023.

UK

Warning over violence against retail workers amid record shoplifting offences

Call comes after Co-op says it logged more than 300,000 incidents of shoplifting, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour in its shops last year

Matt Mathers

Police are being urged to take tougher action against attacks on retail workers amid record levels of theft and violence against shop staff.

It comes after Co-op said that it had logged more than 300,000 incidents of shoplifting, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour in its shops last year. The number of assaults increased by a third to more than 1,300. Co-op is the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer with more than 2,500 local, convenience and medium-sized stores.

A report commissioned by Co-op and authored by Emmeline Taylor, professor of criminology at City, University of London, set out a 10-point plan aimed at turning the tide on the increase in crime, violence, intimidation and abuse.

The Co-op said the increase in crime came despite it introducing more than £200m of preventative measures over recent years to make its stores and communities safer.

Matt Hood, managing director of Co-op Food, said: “We are seeing far too many prolific offenders persistently steal large volumes of products in our shops every day, and, if they are stealing to fund addictions, the situation often becomes volatile and dangerous.

“Crime is an occupation for some – it is not petty crime, and it is not victimless. It is imperative MPs don’t turn their backs on shopworkers and vote through the amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to give my colleagues the protection they deserve.”

An offence of attacking a shopworker is an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill which is soon to be debated in parliament.

Prof Taylor said: “The police in England and Wales have lost grip on the scale and severity of acquisitive crime, and, in turn, retailers have lost confidence in them and the wider criminal justice system.

“By taking decisive action to tackle high-volume, high-impact retail crime, the police and retail industry can work together to create safer communities in which to live, work and shop.”

Assaults at Co-op increased by a third to more than 1,300 last year

Office for National Statistics data published last month showed that the number of shoplifting offences logged last year soared to their highest level since records began two decades ago.


More than 402,000 offences were recorded in the year to September 2023 in England and Wales, up from 304,459 in the previous 12 months.

It is the first time since current records began in 2002 that the number recorded by police has risen higher than 400,000. The previous peak of 382,643 was recorded in the year to March 2018.

The stark figures came as the cost of living crisis continued to bite across the country.

A survey published earlier in January found eight in 10 people (84 per cent) expect this January to be the toughest yet financially due to rising costs and Christmas spending.

The study, by Nationwide, also found energy costs and added debt were factors affecting people’s finances.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), a trade association representing shops and business across the UK, has called on the government to take tougher action against theft and violence in stores.

Graham Wynn, assistant director of business regulation at the BRC, said: “Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, it costs retailers, and ultimately customers, almost £1bn a year, money that would be better used to reduce prices for everyone.

“Retailers are working hard, trying to tackle this issue, spending hundreds of millions on security staff, CCTV, security tags, and other anti-crime measures.

“More police action is needed as without an effective deterrent, criminals will continue to steal with impunity.”

The government previously said it was committed to tackling shoplifting and violence against retail workers.

Events to mark 50th anniversary of UK’s worst single trawler tragedy

The Hull-based Gaul sank off the coast of Norway in 1974 with the loss of 36 lives.

THE GAUL SANK IN 1974 (PA)

PA MEDIA
DAVE HIGGENS

Events are being held across Hull to mark the 50th anniversary of the loss of the Gaul, which is said to be the UK’s worst ever single trawler tragedy.

The Gaul sunk off the coast of Norway on the night of February 8 1974 with the loss of 36 lives.

Thirty of the crew came from Hull.

For those who have never been to sea, it is hard to imagine the horrors those men went through.

LORD MAYOR OF HULL AND ADMIRAL OF THE HUMBER KALVIN NEAL

The tragedy has always been surrounded in controversy but a 2004 inquiry rejected theories that the vessel was deliberately sunk by the Soviet Union or pulled down by a submarine.

After its publication, many families of the victims dismissed the report by the Wreck Commissioner which concluded the ship sank in heavy storms after the offal chutes were seized open.

Commemoration events will begin on Thursday with a memorial which will feature the ringing of the Gaul Bell, which was recovered from the wreck, outside the Hull Fishing Heritage Centre, before a minute’s silence.

Relatives of the crew will then join the the Lord Mayor and Admiral of the Humber, Kalvin Neal, at a reception at the Guildhall. A service will take place at Hull Minster on Sunday.



The tragedy will also be commemorated at sporting events in Hull in the coming days.

These will start at Hull City’s match against Swansea City at the MKM Stadium on Saturday, including the unveiling of a new mural from artist Andy Pea.

They will continue at the first Hull Derby of the season, when Hull FC face Hull KR in the opening game of the new Super League campaign at the MKM Stadium on Thursday February 15.

Mr Neal said: “The sinking of the Gaul was regarded as the worst ever single trawler tragedy at the time it happened.

“For those who have never been to sea, it is hard to imagine the horrors those men went through.

“Fifty years on, our thoughts are with those men and the families they left behind.”

Meet the daughters of rival militants now running Northern Ireland

Michelle O’Neill has family ties to IRA, Emma Little-Pengelly to Ulster Resistance — and together they’re tasked with building a new peace.


Against the odds of history, First Minister Michelle O’Neill of the Irish republican Sinn Féin and Emma Little-Pengelly of the Democratic Unionist Party have spent their first days as co-leaders of Northern Ireland | Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

FEBRUARY 8, 2024 
BY SHAWN POGATCHNIK

POLITICO EU


BELFAST – Northern Ireland has become a tale of two daughters — one the child of an Irish Republican Army veteran, the other of a loyalist gun-runner determined to keep his homeland British.

Against the odds of history, First Minister Michelle O’Neill of the Irish republican Sinn Féin and Emma Little-Pengelly of the Democratic Unionist Party have spent their first days as co-leaders of Northern Ireland’s cross-community government proclaiming common ground.

It’s an open question how long O’Neill and Little-Pengelly can maintain this united front in public and keep Stormont, the hilltop base for their four-party administration overlooking Belfast, from collapsing. Their parties have taken turns wrecking the coalition — Sinn Féin in 2017, the DUP in 2022 — and both hug close their respective power, as the largest party on each side of the communal divide, to bring the house down again if politically advantageous.

Yet together, these two children of the Troubles may represent the best chance in decades to make a belated success of power-sharing and leave their society’s bloody divisions behind.

Growing up through the final years of a 30-year conflict that claimed 3,600 lives followed by a quarter-century of imperfect peace, theirs are parallel lives that have finally intersected.

Before Michelle Doris was even born, her father Brendan was already in prison for his involvement in the Provisional IRA, the outlawed group responsible for nearly half the Troubles’ death toll and thousands of bombings. Along the way her dad’s East Tyrone unit suffered exceptional losses from British army ambushes, including Michelle’s cousin Tony, riddled with bullets and burned beyond recognition as he drove an IRA hit squad on a mission.
Barely 20 miles down the road, when Emma was only nine, her father Noel Little left for a secret rendezvous in France — and didn’t come home for two years.

Little, a former British soldier, was the co-founder of a militant anti-IRA group called Ulster Resistance with strong links to the DUP. In 1989, French anti-terrorist police caught him as he tried to negotiate a missile tech-for-guns deal with a defense official from apartheid-era South Africa at a Paris hotel.

Children of violence

By the time of Little’s arrest and conviction for conspiracy to import arms, Ulster Resistance had already smuggled an arsenal from South Africa and distributed hundreds of assault rifles and other weaponry to loyalist gangs terrorizing the Catholic side of the community. Police ultimately linked these guns to more than 70 murders, including a trio of massacres in rural pubs and a Belfast betting shop.

It is telling how O’Neill, 47, and Little-Pengelly, 44, now talk about their fathers and their loyalties — as members of communities who have been traumatized and victimized, not aggressors responsible for making the horrors worse.

On the rare occasions they have broached the topic, typically in self-penned or party-filmed PR puffs, O’Neill and Little-Pengelly have minimized the paramilitary pasts of their fathers — and, in O’Neill’s case, continued paying wider tribute to the Provisional IRA as heroes.

O’Neill declared her position on the 30th anniversary of the British army’s largest single killing event of Provisional IRA members, the Loughgall ambush of 1987, when eight IRA men were shot dead as they bombed a police station. O’Neill was the newly promoted regional leader of Sinn Féin following the death of her predecessor and mentor, former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, in 2017. She told the Irish republican faithful she would never stop saluting “our patriot dead” who had perished in pursuit of “a just cause.”

“The past is part of our present. The past is not another country. It shapes our lives, our politics,” O’Neill said that day, words she has repeated from podiums at other IRA memorial events before and since.

In 2022 she doubled down on a position which causes deep offense to many unionists, telling a BBC podcast that Irish republicans had “no alternative” but to pursue violence before the 1990s peace process.

But last weekend, after the DUP finally lifted its two-year obstruction of Stormont, O’Neill took a different tack. She pledged to respect the British unionist side of the house and govern fairly as she won belated elevation to the top job of first minister. She becomes the first Catholic to hold the title in what was once a Protestant-dominated body politic

“Much suffering and trauma persists in our society as a result of the injustices and tragedies of the past,” O’Neill said in her first remarks in the role, her eyes seemingly fixed on the new deputy first minister Little-Pengelly across the Stormont chamber. “We must never forget all those who have died or been injured or their families. I am sorry for all the lives lost during the conflict, without exception.”

The past is not a foreign country

For her part, Little-Pengelly — an adviser to three DUP leaders — has toed a fine line in expressing loyalty to a father who, in his Ulster Resistance heyday, declared his determination to oppose compromise with Irish republicanism “to the bitter end, to the death.” His pivotal role was highlighted in a BBC Spotlight investigation broadcast in 2019.

Shortly after her jump from behind-the-scenes aide to Stormont lawmaker, and almost immediately into a junior ministry — a speedy promotion that put a sharper spotlight on her family ties to Ulster Resistance — Little-Pengelly wrote that her love for her father was “unconditional” and his 1989 arrest was neither “a badge of shame nor a badge of pride.” She has declined since to discuss his paramilitary record in any detail.

In her own maiden speech, Little-Pengelly likewise offered strong eye contact with O’Neill as she described a childhood traumatized by IRA violence, including the 1991 car bombing of her predominantly Protestant village of Markethill.

Emma Little-Pengelly speaks during proceedings of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont |

 Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/Northern Ireland Assembly via Getty Images

“Seared in my experience is that haunting wail of alarms and the sounds of our emergency services, the carpet of glass and debris, the shock, the crying and the panic that shook and destroyed that place I called home,” she said. “I am thankful that our young people today do not have to face that terror.”

It will be fascinating to see whether O’Neill and Little-Pengelly can turn their hopeful words into concrete action in what remains a deeply divided society, with significant security risks that until now have kept O’Neill out of unionist areas and Little-Pengelly from republican ones. That reality is underscored by O’Neill’s acceptance of discreet protection by police bodyguards, an offer declined by her Sinn Féin predecessor McGuinness.

O’Neill entered politics in 2005 because of the terminal illness of her father, who had transitioned from IRA “active service” to a Sinn Féin post on his local council. He died months after she won election to fill his seat. Rapid promotion followed with Sinn Féin’s entry into the Stormont government alongside the DUP in 2007, first as education minister, then in charge of health — and now, nearly two years after Sinn Féin’s breakthrough in assembly elections, the top job.

“I know rightly he would be looking down and be very proud of his wee girl,” O’Neill said of her father.

A source of hope

Little-Pengelly’s father, since returning home from remand in France, has remained almost entirely out of the public eye — until last Saturday at Stormont. He watched from the public gallery as, below, his daughter pledged to work with those who were once life-or-death enemies.

“Michelle is an Irish republican, and I am a very proud unionist. We will never agree on those issues,” Little-Pengelly said to nods of mutual recognition with her newfound partner.

“Let us be a source of hope to those young people who are watching today, not one of despair. Let us prove that difference, through recognition and respect, can be a strength and that difference need not be a barrier to progress and delivery,” she said. “Let us do it, side by side.”

SCOTLAND

GREEN MSP launches charity-backed bill consultation on end to greyhound racing


8 February 2024
by Niall Christie


Scottish Green Mark Ruskell wants to make it illegal to hold races in Scotland.

A ban on greyhound racing has moved a big step closer, with Scottish Green MSP Mark Ruskell today launching a consultation for his bill that would make it illegal to hold races in Scotland.

This is a key step in the process of delivering this much-needed ban, and would signal the end for Scotland’s last remaining dog track.

Mr. Ruskell , who represents the Mid Scotland and Fife region, has been working closely with animal welfare charities including the Scottish SPCA, One Kind and others in exposing the cruelty animals suffer in being forced to compete on dog tracks.

Data showed 17,930 recorded injuries among registered greyhounds and 2,412 deaths between 2018 and 2021 across the UK.

Mr Ruskell said: “Greyhound racing is a cruel gambling-led sport. There is nothing safe about forcing dogs to run around an oval track at 40 mph. It is wrong, and it must be stopped.

“The industry has shown that it cannot be trusted to regulate itself, with hundreds of greyhounds dying or being injured every year.

“The way that we treat vulnerable voiceless animals is a mark of our values and who we are as a nation. The Scottish Parliament has already taken action to ban the use of wild animals in circuses. It’s time we stopped greyhound racing.

“With only one racetrack left in Scotland, there has never been a better time to put paws before profit and end track races. No dog can be left behind.

“I hope that as many people as possible take part in my consultation and that we can use it to develop the most appropriate and robust legislation possible and deliver an end to this abusive and badly-dated practice.”

Deepfake video call scams global firm out of $39 million

By James Titcomb
February 8, 2024

London: A finance worker has been tricked into paying $39 million to scammers by a “deepfake” video call featuring AI versions of his co-workers, police in Hong Kong have said.

The employee transferred the money ($HK200 million) to the criminals after they used artificial intelligence software to imitate his superiors, including his UK-based chief financial officer.

Everybody on the video call apart from the victim was a fake representation of a real person, police said.

Real or realistic? Workers now need to also be alert to the possibility of deepfake impersonation in video calls.

The case is believed to be one of the largest financial scams to date featuring deepfake technology.
The company and the individual affected have not been named.

Hong Kong police said they were making the case public because it was the first of its kind involving multiple fake people on a call.

“This time, in a multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone you see is fake,” acting Senior Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching said, according to the South China Morning Post.

The employee, who transferred the sum in 15 transactions involving five bank accounts, was suspicious when he received an email purporting to be from his chief financial officer, police said.

Multiple people at the company were reportedly targeted with the phishing message.

However, he was convinced to arrange the payment after apparently verifying the request on the video call.

Deepfakes have improved dramatically in recent years with advances in artificial intelligence technology. It allows scammers to assume a person’s likeness and imitate their voice with minutes or even seconds of publicly available video footage for reference.

The victim only realised he had been scammed when he grew suspicious and contacted the company’s headquarters to verify that the transaction was genuine.

Deepfake video calls have been used in financial scams before, but typically in one-on-one communications, which are easier to create.

Fake audio, which is also easier to produce, was used in 2019 to trick a worker at an unnamed British energy company to pay £200,000 ($388,000) to a scammer impersonating their boss.

Deepfake videos involving imitations of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have been used by Facebook scammers to run more than 100 advertisements, according to researchers.

Last month, the social media platform X rushed to take down fake explicit images featuring the popstar Taylor Swift, after the images went viral on the service.

Microsoft later altered an AI tool used to make images after suggestions the pictures may have been made using the software.

The Telegraph, London

FIVE EYES

Inside the UK's top-secret spy base preparing for war

Sky News has been given rare access to a top-secret military spy base in Cambridgeshire where defence officials warned that conflict is likelier now than at any point in recent history.

Deborah Haynes
Security and Defence Editor 

@haynesdeborah
Thursday 8 February 2024

The Pathfinder Building at RAF Wyton. Pic: Ministry of Defence


The UK is living in "truly dangerous times" with the chance of "large-scale conflict" likelier than at any point in recent history, defence officials have warned.

Russia's war in Ukraine, Iran-linked violence in the Middle East and the potential for China to invade Taiwan are among the challenges that could spark a sudden escalation.

At the same time, new weapons developed by rival states are growing in lethality.

China has a "world-leading" arsenal of hypersonic missiles that can travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound, making them very difficult to destroy once launched, officials said.

They signalled the best way to defeat such a weapon - like the DF-17 or longer-range DF-27 ballistic missiles - would be to locate the launch sites inside China and take them out before they are fired.

The comments were made as a group of journalists was given rare access to a top-secret military spy base in Cambridgeshire.

RAF Wyton hosts one of the biggest intelligence analysis centres among Western allies inside a complex called the Pathfinder Building.

Running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, analysts and other experts work inside a giant, grey, windowless room with a high ceiling, about the size of an indoor football pitch.

Teams are divided into sections, seated around white, curved desks, each with computers and screens, while television monitors beam in live images from satellite and drone feeds from areas of interest around the world.

One official said it is the "biggest top secret floor plate" dedicated to intelligence analysis, specifically for a group of close allies known as the Five Eyes - the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Red, glowing digits from a line of digital clocks along one wall give a nod to the allies and other areas of interest, offering the time zones for Washington, Zulu (GMT), Stuttgart, Moscow, Canberra and Wellington.

The hall is one of several classified sites across the country used by Defence Intelligence, which comprises around 4,500 personnel in total - two-thirds military, one-third civilian

Staff are also deployed overseas on missions.

While not a bespoke agency, Defence Intelligence is the military-focused branch of the UK's intelligence community, which also comprises MI6, MI5 and GCHQ.

A second official said demand for the work of military spies is the highest they have known it since at least Russia's first attempt to invade Ukraine in 2014.

"I believe we are living in truly dangerous times," the official said, noting that the task for Defence Intelligence is to provide "insight and foresight".

Underlining the importance of this kind of input, the official said: "There won't be time from a warning to making significant changes to be prepared for large-scale conflict."

The official added: "We are in a pre-war situation… [We are] at a point when large-scale conflict is more likely than it has been in recent history."

The comments came after General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British Army, said last month that the UK public needs to be ready to fight in a future war.

In addition, Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, has cautioned about a "pre-war world", though without announcing any change of policy to better prepare the nation, including civilians and industry, for the reality of what a future war would mean.

A third defence official offered a view of the threat picture facing the UK and its allies.

"We are generally seeing a world that is complex and increasingly interconnected and has more threats of instability and competition," the official said.

Russia - nuclear-armed and seeking to expand - remains the most acute threat facing the UK and its allies, but officials said they are "very alive" to the challenge posed by China.

 

Alarm sounded over 'prison-like' conditions in UK immigration centres

By Clara Preve

Published on 08/02/2024 - 

A new report has urged UK authorities to make a raft of improvements inside immigrant detention centres, including detention conditions and staffing issues.

Immigration detention centres in the United Kingdom still have a long way to go. 

That's according to a new report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) released on Thursday. 

During a visit to the country between March and April 2023, it flagged up several issues surrounding the uncertainty of how long migrants will be detained, "prison-like" conditions in centres and the treatment of those displaying symptoms of mental illness.

The UK government blasted the report, saying it did not "recognise much" of its content.  

The CPT report put forward a set of recommendations for Downing Street, which is currently trying to get its controversial bill to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda through the House of Lords. 

The UK should introduce a time limit for holding people under immigration legislation, with the uncertainty of not knowing the length of detention having a negative impact on detainees, it says. 

At the moment, the UK 1971 Immigration Act does not establish a time limit for detention. 

This means people can spend six months, and even a year or two in a detention facility, Hugh Chetwynd, executive secretary of the CPT, tells Euronews.

“The uncertainty when you get detained for how long you’re going to be there plays into your well-being,” Chetwynd says, “especially if you haven’t committed a crime and you’re going to be removed.”

Prison-like facilities and poor ventilation

The CPT visited four detention centres located across the country: Derwentside (near Newcastle), Brook House (Gatwick Airport) and Colnbrook and Harmondsworth (London area).

Detention centres are generally well-equipped, according to the report. Some rooms include televisions, cupboards with locks, a seating area and windows that can easily be opened. 

Yet, the CPT determined Brook House and Colnbrook detention centres remain prison-like and “not appropriate for holding persons." 

While Brook House has been trying to create a better environment by including wall art, more efforts should be made, the CPT says. 

Some people reported headaches in centre due to the lack of ventilation in the cells, with the CPT reporting mould. 

The delegation also received complaints about the food in all four centres. Concerns surrounded inadequate portions and poor quality. 

eople thought to be migrants who undertook the crossing from France in small boats and were picked up in the Channel. Friday, 17 June, 2022.Associated Press

There are no indications of physical ill-treatment of staff members to detainees, the report says. 

It indicates people working in facilities are generally supportive and have good relationships with everyone. 

Yet, at Colnbrook and Harmondsworth, there were alleged reports of abusive language by staff members. At Brook House, the CPT noted moments of “dismissive behaviour and a lack of engagement” by staff. 

Concern over treatment of people with mental health illness

People in detention centres have good access to mental health teams, the CPT reported. 

But it said the transfer of patients with “severe symptoms of mental illness” to a psychiatric hospital remains a concern. 

The CPT also found that some people who have been considered to be unfit for detention were kept in the centres. 

Under UK rules, vulnerable people must be brought to the attention of the authorities that make decisions on detention. If a person's health is likely affected by detention, authorities must then assess whether they should be released, the report says. 

Still, the CPT found in some centres, people were categorised incorrectly and stayed in detention despite the implications for their health.

Their report raised concerns about the deportation processes of foreigners who had committed crimes in the UK, finding they were "locked up 23 hours a day in their cells in poor conditions with little prospect of removal could amount to inhuman and degrading treatment."

In response, the UK government said it “does not recognize much of the content of this report” as it “does not accurately reflect the important work we undertake to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those in our care.” 

They claimed the UK has long fulfilled its human rights obligations and ensured the protection of liberties.

Handcuffed migrants face unlimited detention in ‘prison-like’ conditions, anti-torture committee finds

One Somalian man was held in immigration detention for four years

Holly Bancroft
Social Affairs Correspondent
 THE INDEPENDENT

Migrants facing unlimited detention in “prison-like” UK immigration sites are being handcuffed to beds and allowed to self-harm, a European anti-torture committee has found.

Long stretches of confinement with no end in sight for asylum seekers mean they face mental breakdowns, inspectors from the Council of Europe committee on the prevention of torture reported. They also received reports of fights and a nine-hour stand-off between asylum seekers and guards.

Inspectors also criticised the practice of handcuffing women to beds when they make external hospital visits even when guards are present.

In a report published on Thursday, inspectors also criticised the UK’s Rwanda bill, which aims to send asylum seekers to the African nation, for eroding “basic safeguards that protect people from being potentially subjected to torture and inhuman or degrading treatment”.

They listed a number of incidents where migrants’ mental health had deteriorated while being detained in the UK.

Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said the report showed “escalating institutionalised cruelty towards asylum seekers and other marginalised migrants”.

She added: “It’s unacceptable for survivors of torture and other refugees to be detained. And the government must end this practice immediately. A more compassionate approach is essential to protect the safety of people who have fled unimaginable horrors.”

Police outside Harmondsworth immigration detention centre near Heathrow

 (PA)

At Heathrow’s detention centres, Harmondsworth and Colnbrook, there were 18 episodes of self-harm in March 2023.

Eight instances were recorded despite the detainees having been assessed as being at risk of suicide.

One of the people had self-harmed three times and had been under constant observation. After coming off the constant watches, he then died by suicide in his cell.

The detention centres at Brook House, near Gatwick, and Colnbrook “remained prison-like”, the inspectors found, adding that this was “not appropriate” for immigration detention.

They added: “The very fact that there is no maximum period of detention and that persons may be held for several years is a trigger for becoming mentally unwell.”

Mental health teams at the detention centres told the inspectors that they were unable to properly care for some patients who really needed to be in a psychiatric hospital.

At Brook House, one person with a history of mental illness started to deteriorate in December 2022. While he waited for a transfer to hospital in another wing, he refused to take his medication and had force used on him four times.

He was eventually transferred in March 2023, but staff at Brook House said a dispute over which organisation would pay for the hospitalisation had delayed help. Government guidance says that patients should receive transfers from detention to hospital within 14 days.

In the first three months of 2023, force was used by Brook House staff 78 times. However, inspectors said that in most cases the use of force was minor.

At the Heathrow centres, Colnbrook and Harmondsworth, force was used by staff on 26 and 20 occasions respectively in the first three months of 2023. At Harmondsworth, a number of detainees staged a protest on 28 March after rumours spread that several people at the centre had died.

Suella Braverman says she ‘foresaw’ concerns at Manston asylum centre

The report said there were “some initial chaotic scenes on the first-floor landing, with various detained persons and custodial officers grappling on the floor with each other”. The situation was then defused and the stand-off, which had begun at 11am, ended at around 8pm.

Inspectors also raised concerns about the policy of “handcuffing vulnerable women to a bed when they have to visit an external hospital”, condemning the practice as “excessive and demeaning”. They added: “There is no need for this when the woman is escorted by at least two staff members.”

In response, the government said that each person handcuffed will have undergone a risk assessment based on their own personal circumstances.

Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, said: “Prolonged periods of detention, insufficient medical care, and physical restraint are all bad for people’s physical and mental health. The government should wake up to the fact that the UK’s detention system destroys lives and introduce humane alternatives, not seek to massively expand the current cruel system.”

One migrant at Colnbrook detention centre told inspectors that there was no way to get immediate emergency help if his mental health deteriorated rapidly. He said that his and other detainees’ mental health could alter quickly depending on their situation inside the centre and news from the Home Office or their families.

Inspectors also raised concerns about the long stretches of time that foreign criminals were being held in prison after they had served their sentences. They raised the case of a 67-year-old Chinese national, who had been diagnosed with psychosis, who was held in Pentonville Prison under immigration detention powers for 20 months. He was spending more than 23 hours a day confined to his cell, only leaving to wash.

The inspectors noted that there was little prospect of him being returned to China imminently because of the “apparent inability to obtain a travel document for him”, adding: “It is also difficult to comprehend why arrangements for the return of this person could not have been made prior to the termination of his 12-year prison sentence.”

The man was eventually deported to China more than seven years after he had been sentenced for a violent offence in 2016.

According to the most recent figures from July last year, some 78 people have been held in prison for more than 18 months under immigration powers.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The welfare of individuals in our care is of the utmost importance and we are committed to ensuring that detention and removals are carried out with dignity and respect.

“We have made significant reforms over the past few years to ensure that decisions to detain vulnerable people are made with systematic safeguards in place. We continue to focus on these priorities, while tackling abuse of the immigration system.”

Inspectors visited five UK immigration detention sites and two prisons, Pentonville and Wormwood Scrubs, last spring.

Of those who had left immigration detention during the first few months of 2023, 82 had been held for between six months and 12 months. Thirty had been there for between one and two years and five were held for between two and four years. There was one case of a Somalian migrant who had been in detention for over four years.

This Somalian man was deported in August last year, the government said.

Inspectors did not visit Wethersfield, a former airbase in Essex that is the subject of a legal challenge brought by a refugee charity against the Home Office. The site came into use after the European visit.

UK

Birmingham girl, 9, with sickle cell wins advocacy award

BBC

02/08/2024

Tayshelice raised hundreds of pounds for sickle cell disease charities through a non-uniform day at her school

A nine-year-old girl who suffered two strokes because of her sickle cell disease (SCD) has won an award for raising awareness about the condition.

Tayshelice, from Kingstanding, Birmingham, was diagnosed as a baby after a heel prick test.

"On the outside, I look fine, but on the inside, it's really difficult and overwhelming," she said.

"We are so proud of her for using her experiences to teach the world about sickle cell," said mum Tameka.

"She's had to deal with so much at such a young age, but she is so resilient and takes everything in her stride."

Tayshelice is one of about 15,000 people in the UK with SCD, which tends to affect people of black Caribbean heritage.

Tayshelice was treated at Birmingham Children's Hospital following a stroke

The lifelong condition produces unusually shaped red blood cells that can block blood vessels.

It can lead to painful episodes - sickle cell crises - and an increased risk of serious infections, strokes and lung problems.

"I've had headaches that feel like there's glass in my head. The pain is so bad that sometimes I have to go to hospital," Tayshelice explained.

Tameka described how, in 2022, she noticed her daughter was unable to hear as well as usual and was beginning to lip read.

An MRI scan later revealed Tayshelice had experienced two "silent strokes" because the blood flow in her brain had been blocked.

"It was really devastating," Tameka said. "We were so worried about her, but she was well looked after by the staff, who arranged an urgent blood cell exchange."
'A little star'

Following treatment, Tayshelice is recovering and has started a YouTube channel to teach others about the condition.

She also reads stories about SCD in church and at local nursing homes and has raised more than £300 for sickle cell charities at a school event.

Tayshelice has now been named My Friend Jen Young Advocate of the Year, for her awareness-raising and will be presented with a prize at a sickle cell conference in the summer.

Amanda Cope, advanced nurse practitioner for haematology at Birmingham Children's Hospital, described her as "a little star".

"She's had a really rough time having to deal with some severe pain but she always soldiers on," she said.

"She's such an inspiration and we're all so proud of her."