Prevention of Terrorism Act (Northern Ireland)

The Prevention of Terrorism Acts were a series of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1974 to 1989 that conferred emergency powers upon police forces where they suspected terrorism.

The direct ancestor of the bill was the Prevention of Violence Act 1939 (Temporary Provisions) which was brought into law in response to an Irish Republican Army (IRA) campaign of violence under the S-Plan. The Prevention of Violence Act was allowed to expire in 1953 and was repealed in 1973 to be reintroduced under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1973.

In 2000, the Acts were replaced with the more permanent Terrorism Act 2000, which contained many of their powers, and then the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. See also Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Act 2006.

Section 8 of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974 provided for temporary powers to examine of persons travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, both within the UK and the Common Travel Area. Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 provides for similar powers that remains in force.

The Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 had seven parts:

The remaining parts of the Act (Information, Proceedings and Interpretation, Further Provisions for Northern Ireland, and Supplementary) are largely technical, although the Northern Ireland provisions extend the right to search property, restricts remission for those convicted of statutory offences, and tightens control over the granting of licenses under the Explosives Act 1875 (new explosives factories and magazines).

In 1980, the BBC's Panorama filmed the IRA on patrol in Carrickmore. The footage was seized by police under the Prevention of Terrorism Acts following an outcry in parliament and the press, as well as Thames TV's Death on the Rock in 1988. They were also used to convict Channel 4 and an independent production company over a Dispatches report in 1991 under new powers in the 1989 revision. The reference to Death On The Rock is incorrect. No footage from that programme was seized by the police.

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