Keeping control orders under surveillance

The government’s policy for replacing control orders went to Cabinet today but there will now be a short delay before it comes to the rest of us.

That’s in large order because the Home Office seems to have over-looked a report it had commissioned on the entire process of consultation – amazing given that the report’s author has often dominated stories about the making of the new laws.

Lord (Ken) Macdonald, former Director of Public Prosecutions and Lib Dem peer, was brought in to oversee the whole process of replacing control orders.

There are suggestions that his earlier doubts about the policy have been squared in the new compromise worked out. But someone seems to have forgotten that he was supposed to provide a kitemark badge of approval to the whole process.

It looks like he’s made it clear what he thinks of the idea of shoving out the policy without his report and things are now on hold while he writes it.