Sentencing and sensibility
As we go to print, ministers are trying to pass emergency legislation to block the automatic early release of convicted terror offenders at the end of this month.
This is the result of 20-year-old Sudesh Amman having been freed automatically halfway through his sentence and put under 24-hour police surveillance, before attacking people in Streatham on 2 February. It also follows the government’s urgent review into the licence conditions of 74 terror offenders who had been released early from prison in November.
The two incidents point to both the importance of learning from past events and looking forward to how we prevent more attacks in the future. Despite some knee-jerk, populist government action, the two go hand-in-hand. Sentencing does not deter terrorism, but better security planning and joint-working across industry can.
In light of this, I encourage you to read Samantha Newbery’s article on page 46 on realistic expectations for improving counter terrorism, as well as the views of Anthony Glees on page 54 on security post-Brexit.
As always, we are grateful to our contributors to this issue - in particular BAPCO and Counter Terror Expo, which remain important events in the counter terrorism calendar.
Michael Lyons, editor
