Anti-terror measures: May aims to close ransom loophole

Home secretary wants to stop insurers reimbursing ransom payments, as UN estimates Isis received £28m in the past year

Theresa May on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. She will publish new requirements to an anti-terrorism and security bill on Wednesday. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/Reuters

The government will embark on fresh steps to cut funding to “barbaric” terror groups such as Islamic State by changing the law to prevent insurance firms from inadvertently reimbursing ransom payments, Theresa May will say on Monday.

In an intensification of the government’s response to the terror threat, on the eve of the publication of the official inquiry into the murder of the soldier Lee Rigby last year, the home secretary will state that the Terrorism Act of 2000 is to be amended to close the funding loophole.

The announcement came after May confirmed that measures were to be introduced ensuring internet service providers keep data that could identify online users.

The home secretary said the new requirements would be included in an anti-terrorism and security bill due to be published on Wednesday, though she indicated that pressure from the Liberal Democrats had stopped her going further on data issues.

Asked on the Andrew Marr show if the measure to link web users and their devices to internet protocol (IP) addresses was a step back towards a snooper’s charter, she said: “This is a step, but it doesn’t go all the way to ensuring that we can identify all the people we will need to. The National Crime Agency … will still not be able to identify everybody who is accessing illegal content on the internet.”

May will make clear that Britain wants to redouble efforts to cut funding lines to Isis. The UN estimates that the group has received £28m in ransom payments in the last 12 months. The UK government traditionally refuses to pay ransoms on grounds that they encourage terrorists.

There is no suggestion that UK-based insurers are helping to reimburse ransom money. But May thinks the Terrorism Act 2000, which criminalises all terrorist financing, has left a loophole as it does not explicitly ban UK insurance and reinsurance firms from reimbursing payments – even when they have reasonable cause to suspect that a payment could have been made to meet a terrorism demand.

May said: “Our position is clear – ransom payments to terrorists are illegal under UK and international law. Agreeing to meet the demands of barbaric groups like Isil [also known as Islamic State] would only put many more lives at risk. These measures will ensure the UK remains at the forefront of global efforts to put an end to the practice.”

May’s remarks came after Liberal Democrats and civil liberties campaigners welcomed the ruling on internet service providers. David Davis, the Tory MP and civil liberties campaigner, said the measure to link subscribers’ data to specific smartphones, laptops or other devices through IP addresses was a sensible change, but that it should not be used as a “stepping stone back to the old snooper’s charter”.

The law will also allow the police to force internet firms to hand over data showing who is using a computer or smartphone at any particular time.

The Lib Dems also welcomed the move, saying Nick Clegg had repeatedly pressed May to introduce proposals to match IP addresses with subscriber data since he blocked the introduction of the “snooper’s charter”.

“It is good news that the Home Office has finally got round to producing proposals on this after being repeatedly asked by Nick Clegg. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to take action on, rather than proposing an unnecessary, unworkable and disproportionate snooper’s charter. There is absolutely no chance of that illiberal bill coming back under the coalition government. It’s dead and buried,” said a Lib Dem spokesperson.

The draft communications data bill would have required internet service providers to store data tracking users’ online activity for 12 months and make that available to the police and security services.

The joint parliamentary committee that strongly criticised the “snooper’s charter” recommended linking subscribers’ data to IP addresses. MPs and peers said the data would make it possible to trace who was using a particular IP address at a given point in time.

Individual devices do not have their own IP addresses but are assigned one each time they go online. The same addresses may be used by different devices at different times. Therefore the police often struggle to prove a link between something that has happened online, such as child abuse images being viewed, and a particular individual.

Davis told the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1: “It’s a stepping stone back to the old snooper’s charter, the thing that parliament roundly threw out about a year and half ago, two years ago, because they weren’t convinced that this was necessary. Now this technical change is okay, it’s sensible, but the home secretary has said in effect that she sees it as a route back into the whole snooper’s charter and, frankly, I think she’s going to have real trouble.”

The legislation will also include Cameron’s controversial plans to ban from the UK, for up to two years, British citizens identified as terror suspects. There will also be wider police powers to seize suspected jihadis leaving the UK, and denial of landing rights in Britain to airlines that fail to supply passenger lists in advance. The bill also contains changes to the terrorism prevention and investigation measures that are used to monitor terror suspects in Britain, including the introduction of a power to order a suspect to live in another part of the country.

The threshold of proof required to exercise such measures will be raised, and The bill will however set out a narrower definition of terrorism in an effort to ensure that the new powers do not target innocent people. May said the bill was needed to counter the “increased threat” Britain faces.