It’s not looking good for the Snooping Bill. The legislation is currently being re-written after serious concerns were raised with the first draft, but I’ve got hold of a letter from privacy campaigners which accuses the government of failing to hold the public consultation that was one of the conditions laid down in the damning report that killed off the first draft. The letter, from Big Brother Watch, Liberty, Open Rights Group and Privacy International, expresses fears that meetings between the organisations and Home Office ministers could be used as evidence that ministers have been consulting on the new legislation. It says:
‘In evidence to the Joint Committee it became clear that your officials regarded discussions with some organisations as consultative when those organisations did not. We would like to take this opportunity to make clear that it would be inaccurate to describe any meetings with our organisations thus far as consultative on the detail of any future legislation.’
The organisations claim that they have never been given ‘any detail of what the “new” Bill will include, only assurances that the draft bill had been significantly re-written’ and that ‘lacking any substantive detail of what the revised bill will include, we do not consider the meeting consultative’.
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