Submission to the Home Office Schedule 7 consultation

<div class="field_pub_report"><a href="/"></a></div><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; -webkit-transition: color 0.3s linear, background; transition: color 0.3s linear, background; outline: none 0px; border: 0px none; color: rgb(241, 88, 37); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#333333" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/CP___Schedule_7_review.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s linear, background; -webkit-transition: color 0.3s linear, background; outline: none 0px; border: 0px none; color: rgb(241, 88, 37);"><img alt="" src="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/icon-pdf.gif" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: none; outline: none 0px; vertical-align: -5px;" />&nbsp;Download the report</a></font></strong></p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong>CP provides a submission to the Home Office submission to the Schedule 7 consultation.&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />CagePrisoners welcomes the Home Office review of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000. &nbsp;We commend the public review of these powers, which have been a great source of concern to Muslim communities in the UK and exacerbated existing tensions between law enforcement and minority groups.&nbsp;</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Yet as we outline in this submission, CagePrisoners is doubtful that simply altering Schedule 7 powers as outlined in the Home Office report is sufficient, however well-meaning these changes may be. &nbsp;</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Firstly, Muslim communities and minority groups complain of having been humiliated, frustrated and inconvenienced by Schedule 7 stops at a rate that far surpasses the non-Muslim majority. &nbsp;The very basis on which Schedule 7 searches are conducted &ndash; selection based on intuition or unspecified risk factors rather than reasonable suspicion &ndash; is counterproductive to combatting terrorism and may constitute a violation of human rights. &nbsp;</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Secondly, the perception that to stop members of &ldquo;suspect communities&rdquo; rather than suspected individuals &ndash; as currently happens &ndash; is neither a moral nor an effective way to fight terrorism. CagePrisoners urges the Home Office to learn from the troubling legacies of other stop and search powers, namely Section 1 and 44, and the demonstrated existence of institutionalized racism in our police forces, as detailed in the MacPherson report. &nbsp;</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Finally, Schedule 7 stops could become an easy gateway for law enforcement to pursue other kinds of civil and human rights abuses, as clearly demonstrated by the case of Madhi Hashi. &nbsp;As this submission details, while the proposed changes to Section 7 are a step forward, they are not enough to engender trust in minority communities about Schedule 7 powers, given that Schedule 7 has become so notorious for breaches of basic civil and human rights.</p>