Government Told Spying Laws Need Stricter Rules

Government told spying laws need stricter rules

The 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (Dripa) has been declared inconsistent with EU law by two judges sitting in London.

The act allows the interception and retention of information from phone and internet communications.

Security Minister John Hayes said: "We disagree absolutely with this judgement and will seek an appeal."


The judges granted Home Secretary Theresa May permission to appeal because of the public importance of their decision.

Conservative former shadow home secretary David Davis and Labour backbencher Tom Watson brought the legal challenge with campaigning members of the public Peter Brice and Geoffrey Lewis.

The MPs applied for a judicial review, saying they were concerned to protect the confidentiality of their contacts with constituents and other members of the public – including whistleblowers – who might approach them with sensitive information.

Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Collins declared that Section 1 of Dripa was flawed because it did not lay down clear and precise rules "strictly restricting" data retention to the purpose of preventing and detecting "precisely defined serious offences, or of conducting criminal prosecutions relating to such offences".

The judges also condemned data being retained without the safeguard of a prior review by a court or other independent administrative body.

They gave the Government and Parliament a deadline of March 2016 "to put matters right".

Read more: Bath Chronicle