Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill: Lords amendments

The Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill 2019-2021 was introduced in the House of Commons on 20 May 2020. It had Second Reading on 9 June 2020 and Report stage and Third Reading on 21 July 2020. The Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 22 July 2020 and completed Third Reading on 11 March 2021.

The Library produced briefings for the earlier stages of this Bill in the House of Commons, for Second reading: Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill 2019-21 and after Committee stage: Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill 2019-21: Progress of the Bill.

The House of Lords made several amendments to the Bill. These are set out in Lords Amendments to the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill and explained in the Explanatory Notes on Lords Amendments. They include:

• Government amendments to ensure that the new terrorism sentence with fixed licence period functions as intended in Scotland.
• Government amendments concerning the position in Scotland with regard to the release of terrorist offenders subject to consecutive sentences.
• Government amendments to remove clauses from the Bill which would have provided for the imposition of polygraph testing as a licence condition for terrorist offenders in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Government amendments to the regime governing Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIMs) to raise the burden of proof for imposing a TPIM, and to require the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation to produce an annual report on their operation.
• An amendment tabled by Lord Anderson to impose a limit of four years on the duration of a TPIM without new evidence of terrorism-related activity.