Britain at ‘greater risk of terror attack than six years ago’ and faces ‘wide range’ of dangers
David Anderson QC said strong intelligence is the key to avoiding a future attack
BRITAIN is at a greater risk of a terrorist attack than it was six years ago, according to one of the UK’s top terror lawyers.
David Anderson QC has warned there is now a “wider range” of dangers than there has been before and despite having the skills to fight terrorism, “we need a bit of luck as well”.
Mr Anderson also said efforts to define extremism as part of proposed new Government measures may prove an “impossible task”.
The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who is due to leave his role, which he has held since 2011, next month, added strong intelligence is the key to avoiding an attack.
“What we see now is not more people being killed in this country - we’ve been both lucky and skilful in that regard over the last 10 years,” he said.
“We are seeing far more experienced terrorist fighters from this country in Syria than we ever saw in Afghanistan or east Africa or other theatres of war.
“And we are seeing a realisation on the part of the terrorists that they don’t need sophisticated explosives plots to take great numbers of lives.
“People using automatic weapons, heavy goods vehicles, even knives, machetes, and securing all the publicity they could possibly want from deploying relatively simple weapons such as that.”
Plans to crack down on the activities of fanatics have been included in successive Queen’s Speeches.
The introduction of a new civil order regime to restrict extremist activity, following consultation, was among the proposals outlined last year.
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But Mr Anderson said: “The proposals announced in May 2015 and May 2016 aim to punish or prevent extremist behaviour by coercive measures.
“The central problem is that nobody seems able to define extremism in a sufficiently certain way for the application of these hard legal measures.
“I suspect that may prove an impossible task. The Government has promised a full consultation on any proposals and we will have to see whether it proceeds even with that.”
The potential return of jihadists after fighting alongside ISIS has emerged as a challenge for security agencies in recent years.
Around 850 UK-linked individuals of “national security concern” have travelled to join the Syrian conflict, with just under half thought to have come back.
Mr Anderson added: “We have probably the best intelligence agencies in Europe.
“We also have excellent co-operation on the whole between intelligence agencies and police.
“It’s more difficult in this country to obtain firearms than it is on the continent of Europe. But there’s no inevitability about this.
“We’ve developed some excellent skills in the fight against terrorism but we need a bit of luck as well.”
The official threat level for international terrorism in the UK is at severe, meaning an attack is “highly likely”.
Security services and counter-terrorism units have foiled at least 10 attacks in the past two years.