May reveals new counter-terrorism measures

UK Government measures to combat a terrorism threat "perhaps greater than it has ever been", will be published in a bill to be introduced to Parliament tomorrow, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.

The Counter-Terrorism Bill follows weeks of negotiations between the Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners, and Mrs May admitted that the proposals would not go as far as she wanted, claiming that there would remain a "capability gap" in the authorities' ability to monitor online communications.

However internet providers will have to retain internet protocol address data to identify individual users, in the hunt for suspected terrorists, paedophiles and those engaged in organised crime, and police will also be able to require companies to hand over details identifying who was using a computer or mobile phone at a given time.

Schools, colleges and local authorities – for example, through probation services – will be required to put policies and programmes in place to help prevent people being radicalised.

New style terrorism prevention and investigation measures (TPIMs) will permit the authorities to force suspects to move to another part of the country, though the threshold for imposing a TPIM will be raised from "reasonable belief" to "balance of probabilities".

Greater powers in relation to people believed to be heading abroad to fight will include cancelling passports for up to 30 days; and temporary exclusion orders will control the return to the UK of British citizens suspected of terrorist activity.

Insurance companies will be barred from paying out money to fund terrorist ransoms.

In a keynote speech, Mrs May insisted the bill was not a kneejerk response but "a properly considered, thought-through set of proposals" at a time when the country faced a terrorism threat "perhaps greater than it has ever been".

She disclosed that 40 planned terror attacks had been foiled since the 7 July bombings in London in 2005.

Human rights group Liberty however described the package as a "chilling recipe for injustice and resentment, closing down the open society she seeks to promote".