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Are these Britain’s ‘enabling acts’? Concern as state control tightens
As the government races emergency powers through Parliament to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, STEVEN WALKER looks at Britain’s record of creeping authoritarianism and asks if we should be afraid
Some of the new powers now enjoyed by police officers are used to harass young black people. Suspects can be stopped and searched, interrogated with no legal counsel present, have their fingerprints collected and then be bailed and released if there is not enough evidence to arrest them.

EMERGENCY powers being quickly enacted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic offer a rare glimpse of how quickly the state can trample on civil liberties and the rule of law. Currently, the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act is being invoked. This legislation unilaterally gives any government minister extraordinary power to do anything, anywhere to anyone without explanation. Margaret Thatcher used similar powers to attack strikers during the 1984 miners’ dispute, using the police as her storm troopers.

Tony Blair’s New Labour was described by Thatcher as “my finest creation.” So he proved when the Criminal Justice Act was introduced in 2003, allowing police to bail suspects without even taking them to a police station, with officers enjoying broad discretion as to which suspects should be treated in this manner. The Act also allowed the police to take DNA samples from anyone who was arrested.

The list of arrestable offences was expanded greatly by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, Police Reform Act 2002 and Criminal Justice Act 2003. DNA samples can be kept on file indefinitely, even if that person is not charged with anything, and there are currently no procedures for getting the police to surrender or destroy such a sample, raising serious privacy concerns.

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