Police and MI5 should not use control orders as an excuse to abandon gathering evidence to prosecute terrorist suspects, the Goverment’s independent reviewer of terrorism law said yesterday.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, said that he believed that investigation into the activities of some of the 18 people currently subject to orders could lead to convictions.

The police are supposed to review cases but, in sometimes little more than perfunctory letters, they are continuing to certify that there is no possibility of realistic prosecutions.

“Little is given by way of reason,” said Lord Carlile in his annual review. The legislation is due to be renewed this week.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “We have said from the beginning that it is better to convict and lock up a terror suspect rather than trying to hold him under less than secure conditions.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, said: “We always feared that control orders would be used to circumvent due process.”

Times Recommends

• Revealed: how Eurocrat leaked secrets over dinners
• Politicians use the net to brainstorm
• British spy in longbow plot to kill Himmler