Prime Minister Mia Mottley has announced plans to introduce new legislation that will overhaul Barbados’ national security framework, including provisions to make wireless surveillance admissible in court and implement lie detector testing for individuals with access to sensitive areas.
At a press conference on Thursday, Mottley said a draft wireless intercept law had already been reviewed by a subcommittee of the Advisory Council on Citizenship Security, chaired by legal scholar Professor Velma Newton. With the subcommittee’s review now complete, the legislation awaits full council consideration before heading to Attorney General Dale Marshall for the next steps.
“We would have spoken previously to you that a consultative process on wireless intercept legislation and being able to use the intercepts as evidence in a law court is something that we would wish to pursue,” Mottley said. “The subcommittee that has reviewed the legislation, has finished their work. It has now to go to the full council. The Cabinet and the Parliament will take the necessary steps to introduce that legislation, conscious that in many instances intel is available, but if you can’t use that intel as evidence, there is then a break between what you can carry to court and what you know,” she added.
“The government has determined that we cannot continue to have that situation obtain, and therefore we want to bridge the gap with the passage of the legislation. Once we get it back from that advisory council, that will move with dispatch.”
In addition to the surveillance law, the government also plans to roll out “truth verification” testing, also known as polygraph or lie detector tests, as part of its national security strategy.
Mottley noted that the initiative had been under discussion for months, led by the attorney general and the permanent secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, who also serves as secretary to the National Security Council. Discussions have involved trade unions, workers’ representatives, and the private sector.
“The truth verification testing is not focusing on any category of worker; it’s focusing on persons who have access to certain secure spaces,” Mottley explained. “If you have access to certain secure spaces, then we need to ensure that you are acting with the integrity that we need you to act with such that the rest of the society is not put at risk.
“The truth verification testing, therefore, is a fancy set of words—effectively a lie detector test—and therefore it will be subjecting both public and private sector persons. We accept that persons cannot be forced in certain circumstances to do it and therefore if they can’t work they won’t have access to those areas and may have to be placed in other jobs, but the AG will continue those discussions and set a timeline.”
The government has spent the past year preparing for implementation by training personnel and acquiring necessary equipment. According to Mottley, Barbados is now ready to launch the testing program.
“We are at a stage now ready to execute and I expect therefore that the AG will be meeting with the unions in the next week, ten days, to be able to set the timelines for that to become live,” she said.
