Prevention of Terrorism Acts

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 The Prevention of Violence Act was allowed to expire in 1953 and was repealed in 1973 to be reintroduced under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1973.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.telugu

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 first Act was enacted in 1974 following the IRA bombing campaigns of the early 1970s. The Act was introduced by Roy Jenkins, then Home Secretary, as a severe and emergency reaction to the Birmingham pub bombs. The apparent chronology was that there were pub bombings by the IRA in Birmingham on 21 November 1974. 21 people died and 184 were injured. There was a strong desire to respond to what was perceived as "the greatest threat [to the country] since the end of the Second World War." (H.C. Debs. Vol. 882 col. 743 28 November 1974, Mr. Lyons.) The conception of the Bill was announced on 25 November, when the Home Secretary warned that: "The powers... are Draconian. In combination they are unprecedented in peacetime." (Ibid. col. 35 25 November 1974, Mr. Jenkins). Parliament was supportive and had passed the Bill by the 29th November, virtually without amendment or dissent. The Bill passed through the Commons on 28 and 29 November and passed through Lords on 29 November. In fact, much of the Bill had been drafted in secrecy during the previous year, as shown in the only full length television commentary on the legislation by Clive Walker.

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