Blog “Civil liberties and the coalition government”, posted last Monday, dealt with the initial Tory and Liberal coalition agreement. It was to be followed in due course by a final and fully comprehensive agreement, and now, surprisingly early, comes that agreement. It is a schedule of over 400 objectives under 31 separate detailed headings (compared with only 11 headings in the original document).

The Civil Liberties section remains unchanged apart from one significant addition. This states: “We will establish a Commission to investigate the creation of a British Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, ensures that these rights continue to be enshrined in British law, and protects and extends British liberties. We will seek to promote a better understanding of the true scope of these obligations and liberties”.

One of the new sections covers Crime and Policing. There is a string of proposals designed to ensure that police forces have greater freedom from Ministerial control, are better able to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour and are much more accountable to the public they serve. There are also a number of specific alcohol related proposals – a ban on the sale of alcohol below cost price, an overhaul of the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licences, a doubling of the maximum fine for under-age alcohol sales to £20,000, etc. There will be better recording of hate crimes against disabled, homosexual and transgender people, which apparently are frequently not centrally recorded.  And there will be a review of the operation of the Extradition Act – and the US/UK extradition treaty – to make sure it is even-handed.

Another new section goes under the heading of Justice. There are a number of measures designed to achieve more effective sentencing policies, as well as overhauling the system of rehabilitation to reduce reoffending and provide greater support and protection for the victims of crime. Other specific measures include delivering up to 15 new rape crisis centres, and give existing rape crisis centres stable, long-term funding using proceeds from the Victim Surcharge; and extending anonymity in rape cases to defendants. The introduction of effective measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and low-level crime is promised, including forms of restorative justice such as Neighbourhood Justice Panels. And yet another review, this time of legal aid “to make it work more efficiently”.

The full text of “The Coalition: our programme for government” can be found at:

 http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_187876.pdf

Party manifestos are really little more than wish lists. But the unprecedented Tory and Liberal coalition agreement, produced at breakneck speed, and to be followed in due course by a final and fully comprehensive agreement, is something else. It is little short of a Queen’s speech for a whole parliament. Section 10 of the agreement is about civil liberties. The preamble states: “The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and roll back state intrusion.” There follow 12 specific pledges.

 Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV. As a result, surveillance has become an inescapable part of life. Britain has a larger DNA base and more police powers and email snooping than any comparable liberal democracy. The agreement pledges further regulation of CCTV, the ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason and the adoption of the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database. The presumption of innocence and the principle that every defendant has the right to be tried by a jury were weakened by the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 and the right to silence was further eroded by the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. Under the same Act an individual and his lawyers may be barred from court proceedings. Freedom to communicate in private has been effectively extinguished by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The rights to freedom of assembly and demonstration were eroded by the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The coalition agreement promises the protection of historic freedoms through the defence of trial by jury and the restoration of rights to non-violent protest.

In June last year, the law lords dealt a major blow to the controversial use of control orders on terror suspects, saying that reliance on secret evidence denies them a fair trial. The then Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, and Chris Grayling, the then shadow home secretary, went on record to welcome the law lords’ decision and to demand an end to “cruel and counter-productive punishments without trial”. Under section 44 Terrorism Act 2000 police can stop and search anyone in a designated area without suspicion that an offence has occurred. Last year a total of 117,278 people were stopped and searched. The coalition agreement promises safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.

Kenneth Clarke, the new Justice secretary, and his team, including Lord McNally, Lib Dem leader in the Lords, will immediately commence work on the promised ‘Freedom or Great Repeal Bill.’ Other major provisions include the scrapping of the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database; the outlawing of finger-printing of children at school without parental permission; and the extension of the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency. There will be a review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech and a new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.

The full text of the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition Agreement can be found at:-

http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/05/Coalition_Agreement_published.aspx