Ministry of Defence police will have sweeping new powers, allowing its officers to arrest people anywhere in the country, under a hitherto unreported clause in the anti-terrorism bill tabled by the government this week.
MoD police - all of whom can carry firearms - will have the same powers as officers in regional forces in "any police area", the bill says.

They will be able to arrest anyone "whom they suspect on reasonable grounds of having committed, being in the course of committing, or being about to commit, an offence".

At present, MoD police have jurisdiction inside or near bases, including US bases, and personnel working or living there. Elsewhere they have to seek permission of local police forces before intervening.

Increased powers for the MoD police were included in the armed forces bill which fell before the general election as a result of opposition to the measure and lack of parliamentary time.

That move, prompted in part by the MoD force's inability under existing law to intervene in last year's fuel protests, was also opposed by MPs because it is less accountable than local police forces.

Conservatives, including Robert Key, then opposition defence spokesman, said it would transform the MoD police into a kind of national paramilitary force.

Opponents of the armed forces bill believed the government wanted to use the 3,700 officers in the MoD police to help make up the shortfall in local police forces and deploy them, in particular, during demonstrations. The new anti-terrorism bill goes further than the armed forces bill which gave the MoD police new powers only in "life threatening" situations. The new bill also increases the powers of British Transport police and Atomic Energy Authority special constables.

The MoD police are not formally subject to police complaints authority investigations, to the inspectorate of constabulary, or to the same disciplinary procedures as local police. It is not accountable to an elected police authority.

It is an MoD agency controlled by a senior civil servant and the defence secretary without formal outside scrutiny, though the ministry recently agreed to appoint three civilians to its police board.

The police complaints authority is investigating a number of allegations of abuse of authority and dirty tricks. They include complaints made by Tony Geraghty, a journalist arrested under the Official Secrets Act for writing a book, The Irish War. Charges against him and his alleged contact, Lieutenant Colonel Nigel Wylde, a retired army bomb disposal officer, were subsequently dropped.

Mr Wylde and his wife, Monika, have also complained about their treatment by the MoD police.
Friday November 16, 2001
The Guardian