Security News > 2021 > March > UK terror law reviewer calls for prison sentences if suspects refuse to hand passwords over to investigators
The UK's Government Reviewer of Terrorism Laws is again advising the removal of legal safeguards around a controversial law that allows people to be jailed if they refuse police demands for forced decryption of their devices.
In what appears to be a recurring theme, Jonathan Hall QC said police should be able to threaten people arrested under terror laws with five years in prison if they don't hand over passwords on demand.
Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act allows police to demand the password for any device they "Lawfully" acquire from a criminal suspect or witness.
The expanded police powers Hall has called for would, he said, "Be a natural fit between the judicial supervision that already exists through warrants of further detention after 48 hours up to a maximum of 14 days, and the consideration of whether permission should be granted to administer an encryption notice, because so much of pre-charge detention under Schedule 8 Terrorism Act 2000 is made necessary by the demands of digital analysis."
Hall also appeared to have taken police claims about how widely they used their considerable powers at face value with no further challenge: "I have been unable to obtain any statistics for the use of the power in the context of terrorism investigations. However, what I have picked up anecdotally from a number of different sources, is that the use of section 49 by CT Police is likely to be rare indeed."
Hall's predecessor Max Hill QC similarly advocated for less oversight and more police powers.