Queen's Speech: New online data terror powers proposed
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Loading... - J. OLIVEIRA
- 27 May 2020
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Planned new laws to give police and spies stronger powers to "target the online communications" of terrorist suspects are in the Queen's Speech.
Downing Street said that measures in the Investigatory Powers Bill would provide the authorities "with the tools to keep you and your family safe".
It will "address gaps" in intelligence gathering and access to communications data which is putting "lives at risk".
MPs have raised concerns about any steps towards a "snooper's charter".
Plans put forward by the Home Office in 2012 would have required internet and phone companies to log details of who people call, text, tweet and when they post on social networks - and keep records for 12 months. The proposal was abandoned after Lib Dem opposition.
But the government has come under growing pressure to do more to respond to the fallout from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria and, specifically, the threat posed by British jihaddists returning to the UK after fighting in the two countries.
The police have long argued that their ability to track the online communications of potential suspects is heavily circumscribed and the the law is not keeping pace with advances in technology.
'Fit for purpose'
The Investigatory Powers Bill is one of 26 proposed laws included in the first all-Conservative Queen's Speech since 1996.
The Conservatives are also proposing new steps to tackle extremism, including giving the home secretary new powers to ban extremist groups and allowing the authorities to close down premises being used to "support extremism".
Also featuring in the Extremism Bill are proposals to allow the broadcasting regulator Ofcom the power to take "tough measures" against TV channels that broadcast extremist content.
No 10 said the Investigatory Powers Bill would "modernise the law" on communications data and ensure it is "fit for purpose".
The legislation, it said, would "address ongoing capability gaps that are severely degrading the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to combat terrorism and other serious crime.
"The legislation covers all investigatory powers including communications data, where the government has long maintained that the gap in capabilities is putting lives at risk," said No 10.
And it will "enable the continuation of the targeting of terrorist communications and other capabilities."
2012 row
Details of the bill are expected to be published in the coming days.
Downing Street said there would be "appropriate safeguards and oversight arrangements" and it would take into account a yet unpublished review of existing counter-terrorism legislation undertaken by the independent reviewer David Anderson.
The coalition government abandoned plans to take forward a Communications Data Bill, published in draft form in 2012, amid disagreements between the Conservatives and Lib Dems and opposition in the House of Lords.
Opponents said the proposals, which would have required internet service providers to log more of what people do online and to make that data more easily accessible to law enforcement and security services, would amount to mass state surveillance.
However, the Conservatives and Lib Dems passed two pieces of counter-terrorism legislation - the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act and the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act - in the final two years of the last Parliament.
These bills gave new powers to UK security services and allowed temporary exclusion orders to be imposed on British terror suspects.
