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| Terror review: Trend towards 'less-organised plots' | Terror review: Trend towards 'less-organised plots' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The terror threat facing the UK is now "more complicated" with the emergence of smaller and less-organised plots, the UK's reviewer of terror laws says. | The terror threat facing the UK is now "more complicated" with the emergence of smaller and less-organised plots, the UK's reviewer of terror laws says. |
| David Anderson QC, whose annual report is published later, said "we are not seeing the big spectaculars" of 9/11 or the 2006 airline liquid bomb plot. | David Anderson QC, whose annual report is published later, said "we are not seeing the big spectaculars" of 9/11 or the 2006 airline liquid bomb plot. |
| But "lone actors" and "low-tech" plots were more difficult to detect, he said. | But "lone actors" and "low-tech" plots were more difficult to detect, he said. |
| The threat resembled the situation in Northern Ireland - small-scale plots on national security targets, he added. | The threat resembled the situation in Northern Ireland - small-scale plots on national security targets, he added. |
| 'Substantial' threat | |
| Mr Anderson, who is a senior lawyer and independent of government, told the BBC the UK was not "out of the woods" with regards to large-scale threats. But he said there had been nothing comparable since the London attacks in July 2005. | |
| "It was really a wake-up call in terms of intelligence - and intelligence has improved hugely since that time," he said. | "It was really a wake-up call in terms of intelligence - and intelligence has improved hugely since that time," he said. |
| "We have much better coverage of the threat than we once did and a consequence of that is that right through from 7/7 in 2005 up until May of this year, there was not been a single death in Great Britain as a result of terrorism." | "We have much better coverage of the threat than we once did and a consequence of that is that right through from 7/7 in 2005 up until May of this year, there was not been a single death in Great Britain as a result of terrorism." |
| Mr Anderson said the current threat level in Britain was "substantial" - meaning there was a strong possibility of an attack - and "severe" in Northern Ireland. | |
| "What we are seeing is a trend towards lone actors - the couple in Manchester last year who went around looking for Jewish people to attack - and we're also seeing self-organised plots," he said. | |
| "You've got things like the Birmingham rucksack bomb plot, you've got the people who are planning attacks on Territorial Army barracks in Luton, on Wootton Bassett and that sort of thing. | |
| "But I wouldn't want you to think it's all getting lower tech. One interesting thing about all three of those plots is that the ring leaders had either trained in Pakistan or had been to Pakistan and had contact with al-Qaeda." |