More control orders on suspects

Control orders can range up to house arrest

Three more terrorism suspects have been put under control orders, Home Secretary John Reid has revealed.

Control orders allow a range of different restrictions to be placed on suspects where there is not enough evidence to put them on trial.

Mr Reid said two Britons and one foreign suspect had been put under control orders between 11 March and 10 June this year.

It means a total of 14 orders are now in force, five of them on Britons.

'Extremely restrictive'

Control orders can impose restrictions including electronic tagging, 18-hour curfews, bans on using mobile phones and the internet, and limits on who they can meet and allow into their homes.

The Home Office has not revealed the scope of the latest orders.

But Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of the terrorism laws, says none of the control orders have gone as far as what is effectively house arrest.

And the most recent orders have been less restrictive than the earlier ones, he told the BBC News website.

Lord Carlile said people had originally predicted there could be 200 or 300 control orders - in fact there were a total of 14 now in force.

"So it has been used more lightly that it was expected," he said.

Lord Carlile in February said some of the control orders were "extremely restrictive". If they were made any tighter, they would need an opt-out from European human rights laws, he said.

The orders were introduced after the House of Lords said the previous system of detaining foreign terrorist suspects indefinitely without trial broke human rights laws.