Other instruments of interest
25. The House may wish to note that two further
Codes of Practice have been brought forward under the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. One Code gives guidance to designated
public authorities on the circumstances in which they can require
people to assist them in putting encrypted information into an
intelligible form. The other gives guidance to the police, intelligence
and Customs authorities about the acquisition of data (which
relates to the "who, when and where of communication but
not the content, not what was said or written"). Although
the Codes are not themselves subject to parliamentary procedure,
they each have to be a brought into force by an affirmative order:
the draft Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Investigation
of Protected Electronic Information: Code of Practice) Order 2007
and the draft Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Acquisition
and Disclosure of Communications Data: Code of Practice) Order
2007.
26. Section 23 of the Terrorism Act 2006 amends
Schedule 8 to the Terrorism Act 2000 to extend from 14 days to
28 days the maximum time during which suspects arrested can be
detained before being charged. Suspects can initially be held
for up to 48 hours after arrest; thereafter warrants for further
detention must be sought by application to a judicial authority;
and these warrants can be extended by up to seven days at a time,
up to a maximum of 28 days. Section 25 is, effectively, a sunset
clause, in that it stipulates that the amendments in section 23
will cease to have effect one year after their commencement (which
occurred on 25 July 2006) unless a further order is made by the
Home Secretary. The draft Terrorism Act 2006 (Disapplication
of section 25) Order 2007 has accordingly been laid to prevent
the maximum period of detention from reverting to 14 days and
to extend the 28 day provision for a further year.
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