"Abolishing the rule about intercept underpins the rhetoric of both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats about control orders and secret evidence," said Matthew Ryder QC, a barrister at Matrix chambers.
"I do think that the discussion about control orders is an important discussion because there is a gap in the capacity of the police and the intelligence agencies to monitor people about whom there is a serious level of concern, but about in respect of whom there isn't enough evidence actually to prosecute," he told Sky News on Sunday.
Justice minister Michael Keenan has defended placing greater restrictions on information about control order cases, saying the proposed changes were to protect police sources.
12.03pm: Ministers have delayed the decision about replacing control orders for at least a week, MPs have been told.
In a sign of growing concerns about the challenge of monitoring terror suspects, the former Middle East minister Alistair Burt led a cross-party call for a debate about reintroducing control orders which were criticised for allowing indefinite house arrest.
Repeated interventions in the review by Nick Clegg's office are said to be causing "huge tensions", while both the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, and the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, are known to be sceptical about keeping control orders.
Lady Neville-Jones, the security minister, and Lord Carlile, the government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, were both giving evidence and they may have given us a clue as to what the government will do about replacing control orders.
It's at the heart of the agonised debate in Whitehall about the future of control orders and Tory angst about the abandonment of their promise to re-write the Human Rights Act.
The amendments would allow state and territory law enforcement officers acting in the course of their duty to gather information about people subject to control orders for the purposes of protecting the public from a terrorist attack.
"Given the longstanding concerns about the replacement of control orders, the limitations of TPIMs and the pressures on monitoring and surveillance, the home secretary needs to provide rapid information about the extent and adequacy of the restrictions on Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed and ask the independent reviewer David Anderson to investigate urgently what has happened," she said.
Eric Metcalfe, the director of Justice, a lobby group, reckons that about half of the control orders now in place might be lifted as a result of the ruling.There will be further consequences, for the use of secret evidence has spread widely in the past decade.
