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UK government delays telecommunications database bill: reports

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown has decided to drop from its immediate legislative agenda a controversial security database bill that would have required telecoms to keep records of all domestic phone calls, e-mails and Internet activity, according to British press reports Friday. The Communications Database Bill will not be part of the Queen's Speech to be delivered to parliament at the opening of its next session next month, but instead it or some variation will be brought forward for public consultation in January with a view to introducing it to Parliament later next year. This timetable may, however, make its future uncertain as Brown has to call an election no later than May 2010. Critics - including some inside the government - have already assailed the proposed measure as an Orwellian infringement on privacy and civil liberties. Last month, the office of Lord Carlile, the Information Commissioner, took the extraordinary step of calling the bill a "step too far for the British way of life." Also in October, outgoing UK Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald warned against the expansion of government power in gathering intelligence and prosecuting suspected terrorists, saying that present decisions about how the government should use technology to protect security are likely to be permanent. Recent high-profile news stories about losses of data by British government official and agencies have heightened concerns over the legislation.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on November 22, 2008 (boomark / email).