In the UK, Terrorism is defined by the Terrorism Act 2000. . If you want to look at the legislation on the .gov.uk website then hit the link.
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| Terrorism Act 2000 |
From the Mi5 site, The threat levels in the UK are graded as :
~ LOW attack highly unlikely
~MODERATE attack possible but unlikely
~SUBSTANTIAL an attack is likely - THIS IS THE CURRENT THREAT LEVEL
~SEVERE attack highly likely
~CRITICAL highly likely soon
The legislation provides the following definition of what terrorism is:
An offence of Terrorism is committed when
Any action is used OR threatened to be used which involves:
~Serious violence to people OR
~Person’s life endangered, OR
~Serious risk to public, OR
~Serious damage to property, OR
~Serious interference or serious disruption of an electronic system.
AND
Which is designed to influence Government or intimidate the public
AND
it’s for a political, OR religious , OR ideological cause
Notes:
1) Terrorism is an anywhere offence . Can be committed anywhere in the world public or private . And any of the elements (ie the actions, the persons or property, any Government) can be anywhere in the world .
2) If it involves firearms or explosives then the box for “ designed to influence Gov or intimidate public” is automatically ticked .
Two of the main offences:
The Crown prosecution Service outlines most of the offences relating to terrorism. Two of the main ones are as follows.
Terrorism act 2006, Section 5. You commit an offence if you intend to commit an act of terrorism , or assist others to do so AND you engage in any conduct to prepare for it.
Terrorism Act 2000 Section 58. without reasonable excuse , collecting information likely to be useful to terrorists. This offence may apply to all those people on Youtube who go around filming / auditing police and military installations and is one reason that police may approach them . The offence is to collect or record information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or to possess a document or record containing such information.
A reasonable excuse includes eg Journalism or academic research , or didn't know that the document or record contained info useful to a person committing or preparing terrorism.