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Theresa May

Government accused of ‘steamrolling’ surveillance legislation

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By Jessica Goodfellow, Media Reporter

January 13, 2016 | 2 min read

The government has been accused of attempting to “steamroll” new surveillance laws through parliament at “breakneck speed” without providing MPs with sufficient time to go over the proposals.

The chairman of the joint committee on the draft Investigatory Powers Bill was granted two months to assess the legislation after a request for additional time was blocked by the Home Office.

The bill intends to update the laws governing how the law enforcement and the security and intelligence agencies gather private communications or other forms of data to combat crime and terrorism. The bill would require internet companies to hold data for 12 months from when people visited sites or sent emails.

A member of the committee told The Times: “It’s 300 pages long and has considerably more powers than the last bill. But the last committee had five months [to consider the bill] and we only have two. It’s all being done at breakneck speed. The result will be that the report produced will not be as thorough as it should be.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “In November 2015 both Houses of Parliament agreed the schedule. The Home Office has not received correspondence from the committee requesting more time since the deadline was agreed.”

Last year home secretary Theresa May announced plans to introduce a new “double lock” system for agencies to intercept people’s communications which formed the foundation of the surveillance bill.

The bill proposes that the secretary of state and a judicial commissioner will have to sign off on interception warrants before police or security agencies are enabled access to an individual’s online data.

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