Terrorism Bill — Clause 1 — Offence of Encouragement of Terrorism — "intends" — 2 Nov 2005 at 15:41

The majority of MPs voted against making the offence of Encouragement of Terrorism only apply to cases where an individual intended their actions to encourage terrorism.

NOTE: The clerks of the house have confirmed their list of names, though it differs from the official count for the Ayes of 299, meaning that there appears to be a majority of 3 rather than just 1. Click HERE for the list of MPs including those who were absent.

Those voting Aye wished to add a phrase to the end of part (1) of Clause 1 of the Terrorism Bill. This was a brief but similar change to what was proposed in the last division

Clause 1(1) of the Bill says:

• A person commits an offence if (a) he publishes a statement or causes another to publish a statement on his behalf; and (b) ... he knows or... has reasonable grounds for believing that members of the public... are likely to understand it as a[n]... encouragement... of acts of terrorism...

And the question which was the subject of this vote was to append the phrase:

• and intends that his statement shall have that effect

which would have meant you couldn't break this law unintentionally.

Debate in Parliament | Source |