Council snoopers to get new powers to seize phone and email records -
with taxpayers footing the £160m bill By James Slack
Last updated at 6:48 PM on 12th August 2008
Council snoopers are to be given even greater Big Brother powers to pry into phone, e-mail and internet records - with the public made to foot a bill of almost £50 million.
Town halls, along with the police, security services, health authorities and other public bodies, will have access to the 'communication' records of anybody suspected of involvement in even the most minor crime.
The new powers - which stem from an EU directive supposedly designed to catch terrorists - will even allow the police to track down people who have told a friend they are planning to harm themselves.
The new powers would allow public bodies including councils to access phone, internet and email records of people suspected in even minor crimes
The £46.58m cost of compensating mobile phone companies and internet firms for storing and providing the personal data to public bodies - which amounts to up to one billion different pieces of information every day - will be met by the taxpayer.
Critics said it was yet another alarming lurch towards Britain becoming a 'surveillance state'.
Last night, shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'Yet again the government have proved themselves unable to resist the temptation to take a power quite properly designed to combat terrorism to snoop on the lives of ordinary people in everyday circumstances.
'It is typical of this government that they also intend to make the taxpayer pay extra for the privilege.'
The controversy centres on an EU directive passed in the direct aftermath of the July 7 terror attacks on London in 2005.
Britain, which held the EU presidency at the time, said it was crucial for terrorism investigations that the police and security services could access the times, dates and recipients of a suspect's landline, mobile phone, e-mail and internet communications, along with those of any associates.
A deadline was set for implementing the new powers by March next year. The Home Office yesterday published its proposals for how this will be achieved.
It is intending to give the power to access communications data to all public bodies covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 - which includes local councils.
And, rather than limiting the new rules to detecting terrorism and serious crime, it can be applied to any offence.
Town Halls will be free to use it to track down fly tippers, and those responsible for other so-called 'enviro-crimes'.
Councils can already request some of the data, and have been using it to try to trace minor offenders.
But the new rules will make it compulsory for the phone and internet companies to hand over personal information over the past 12 months.
At the moment, arrangements are largely voluntary and some communications firms have said they are unwilling to help.
The authorities will even be able to access personal data to protect a member of the public from harming themselves - even if no crime is involved.
Examples given by the Government include a person who tells a friend by e-mail, or via the internet, they are intending to harm themselves.
The police, if contacted by the friend, would use the new powers to locate a home address, and race round to check they are OK.
Yesterday's document puts the cost of reimbursing the communication companies for handing over the information at £30.35m, plus £16.23m over eight years.
A staggering one billion e-mails, telephone calls and internet communications take place every day, the Home Office said.
Phil Booth, of the NO2ID campaign said the Government had yet again used terrorism as an excuse to extend the powers of public bodies to snoop.
He added: 'No-one would ever say that surveillance is not required for the most serious crimes and terrorism, but to extend such powers and make it so simple for any official to peek into your private affairs shows we are now entering into a data base state.'
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'The Government has a nasty habit of gold plating EU legislation, transforming understandable policies into erroneous invasions into our personal lives.
'The multi-million pound cost of implementing this directive is bad enough, but what's worse is the fact that local authority busy-bodies will be able to monitor our comings and goings.
'The Government should stop using terrorism as an excuse to snoop on law-abiding families.'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'This data is a vital tool to investigations and intelligence gathering in support of national security and crime.
'Communications data allows investigators to identify suspects, examine their contacts, establish relationships between conspirators and place them in a specific location at a certain time.
'It also gives investigators the potential to identify other forensic opportunities, identify witnesses and premises of evidential interest.
'Many alibis are proven or refuted through the use of communications data. Without the directive investigative opportunities will increasingly be lost.
'Implementing the EC Directive will enable UK law enforcement to benefit fully from historical communications data in increasingly complex investigations and will enhance our national security.'
Public bodies will not be able to read the contents of e-mails, or listen to what was said in telephone calls.
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