Powers to search go too far - MHK

An MHK is repeating the view that giving officials the power to search premises without a warrant is going a step too far.

Rushen member Quintin Gill's comments relate to the Terrorism Finance Bill, which has been given a third reading in the House of Keys and will now be considered by the Legislative Council.

He is praising the government for bringing forward the legislation, but says he can't agree with the clause which gives unlimited powers to enforcement officers.

Mr Gill believes it effectively renders the law useless:

"The officers don't have the right to enter because they can be refused entry [and] that requires them to do what they should be doing anyway in my opinion.

"And that is to get a warrant, signed by a magistrate or a judicial officer, and that affords them the absolute right to enter the premises.

"So if we just said 'if you need to enter premises, if you have reasonable cause, you get a warrant, the same as if you come to your house, or my house' - that is entirely right, that has a control on the enforcement officers.

"But instead we've said 'we'll give you this right', although actually it's so fundamentally flawed in the legislation that it's not workable."