The government’s new counter-terrorism measures continue to put at risk the UK’s unrivalled reputation for upholding the principles of freedom and fairness, the Law Society warned this week.

Law Society president Linda Lee said: ‘The new measures around control orders still don’t go far enough to preserve the rule of law and access to justice. The new regime will still impose significant restrictions on liberty, including a nightly curfew, electronic tagging and severely restricted communication – all based on unproven allegations and evidence that the suspect is often not aware of and therefore unable to answer.’

Lee said the Society welcomed the reduction of the pre-detention limit from 28 to 14 days, and the tightening of police stop and search powers. However, the right balance must be struck between national security and ensuring people have the right to know the charges against them and the right to defend themselves, she said.

Lee added that the Society was also pleased that the government has agreed to work to assess the advantage, cost and risk of a legally viable model for the use of intercepted evidence, and that a report will be presented to parliament during the summer.

Lee said: ‘The usual principles of criminal law and criminal process should be utilised, so that where suspicion of involvement in a criminal offence exists, the person should be subject to a criminal trial in the usual way. We don’t believe the new measures go far enough to achieve that.‘In our submission to government on this issue, we asked that any alternative measures avoid the draconian restrictions on liberty that the existing regime imposes.’