In a Bill published today, Ministers would be given the right to deploy troops, requisition property and close down areas of the country in the event of a national emergency.
But with dispute over what constitutes such an emergency, is the government being given carte blanche to override our civil liberties?
The legislation was announced as new details were emerging about the security threats that have disrupted air traffic around the world.
Chief Correspondent Alex Thompson has this:
It's time - ministers say - to sweep away previous civil emergency laws framed in the 1920s and 1940s.
For some time British police have had draconian powers, now ministers themselves want some - and they're doing it like this:
Faced with anything from extensive flooding through to civil disobedience, like the fuel protests, to an al Qaeda attack, ministers want to be able to convene courts, seize property, send in the army, suspend human rights laws, ban public gatherings, expel the public from areas -- and all without the approval of Parliament.
Douglas Alexander, Minister for the Cabinet Office:
"The Civil Contingencies Bill is an important element of the Government's work to enhance the resilience of the United Kingdom to disruptive challenges. We have worked very hard with practitioners to get this Bill right, and I am confident that we have achieved the right balance."
But by-passing Westminster in emergencies has incensed veteran parliamentarians who see bad law passed at speed -- regretted at leisure.
Tam Dalyell, Lab MP:
"Powers of this kind have a habit of being introduced and then lasting far beyond...just look at the Official Secrets Act."
So what's an emergency? Well - the Bill defines one as "...an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare, the environment or the security of the UK or a place in the UK."
Shami Chakrabarti, Director Liberty:
"The important thing is that an updated measure shouldn't be used to broaden the definition of an emergency."
The Bill's only a draft of course and already one key concession's been made: they wanted an emergency to include threats to political, administrative or economic stability, until it was pointed out that meant New Labour could simply shut down Britain and stay in power forever.
A few miles west of Parliament at Heathrow and the reality of a continuing emergency. The British Airways flight to Washington was delayed for security checks for the fifth day running.
EU aviation chiefs will now meet in Dublin next week as the row over US demands for armed guards on transatlantic flights continues.
WHY THE FLIGHT DELAYS?
It's now a clear what's behind the recent security scare affecting the BA flight as well as an Air France transatlantic route.
We now know that a man was trying to board Air France 68 from Paris to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve - the flight was cancelled along with five others between Paris and LA on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
We know something of what the French officials know. Their officials say the mans is Tunisian, holding a French passport - believed to have links to al Qaeda. French officials passed the man's details to Heathrow.
The belief is that the man may have left France for the Heathrow BA flight. France's Justice Minister today confirmed that they are looking for someone.
The French media are reporting that the man's name matches that of a prisoner captured by US forces in Afghanistan, who later escaped.
In America itself the Washington Post reported today that on Dec 21st the Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge made the biggest deployment of radiation experts across the USA, since the weeks after Sept 11th.
That day - according to the Post - radiation experts were despatched to Washington, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angles and Baltimore in complete secrecy.
The same day large radiation detectors and hundreds of pager-sized monitors were sent out to police in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Detroit.
They feared a so-called dirty bomb attack of some kind. Tonight across military bases hundreds of nuclear and bio-weapons experts are still deployed along with pharmaceutical stockpiles for response to biological attack.
But in Britain the debate is political - how will ministers use their new powers - against al qeada of course -- but perhaps against striking firemen creating a national emergency of a quite different kind?
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