The joint committee examining the controversial draft Communications Data Bill has reported back, and it’s not good news. The report’s damning findings about the draft legislation from the Home Office has led Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to call for it to be redrafted, and a hostile Tory MP to describe the plans to monitor internet users’ activities as ‘on life support’. The committee said:
‘Our overall conclusion is that there is a case for legislation which will provide the law enforcement authorities with some further access to communications data, but that the current draft Bill is too sweeping, and goes further than it need or should.’
The report warns that ‘the draft bill pays insufficient attention to the duty to respect the right to privacy’, and that many of the provisions were set out in such a way that the public would be right to be alarmed. It said undertakings by officials in evidence sessions to the committee that the powers the bill afforded would not need to be exercised in full were insufficient, adding:
‘An undertaking, whether by officials or by ministers, that a power will be used only to a limited extent, is of little value.
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