Latest editorial
An aerial view of central London showing the the House of Lords and the Victoria Tower at the Palace of Westminster
Lamiat Sabin
Parliamentary reporter
TIGHT curbs must be put on a Bill to prevent vulnerable children and young people from being used as undercover agents by the state, peers urged today.
In its Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill, the Home Office under Home Secretary Priti Patel is proposing that “criminal conduct authorisation” be granted to under-18s so that they can be used as a “covert human intelligence source.”
Some children and young adults are already being recruited back into criminal activity by the state as undercover operatives and informants, for example, youngsters who get caught by police for being involved in county-lines gangs.
Evidence to peers from medical leaders, patient safety officials and the children’s commissioner has intensified fears that the Bill’s safeguards are inadequate, writes ADAM JAMES POLLOCK
While Trump threatens to send Haitian gang leaders to El Salvador's terror prison, DANNY SHAW reveals how these paramilitary groups are merely symptoms of US-backed neocolonial rule — the real terrorists are the CIA and international actors arming desperate youth to traumatise an unarmed population