CHAPTER 14: EXPLANATIONS
“.. that there is a case for legislation which will provide the law enforcement
authorities with some further access to communications data, but that the
current draft Bill is too sweeping and goes further than it need or should”,
adding that:
“[b]efore re-drafted legislation is introduced there should be a new round of
consultation with technical experts, industry, law enforcement bodies, public
authorities and civil liberties groups”
on the basis of a narrower, more clearly defined set of proposals.20
14.26. Those narrower proposals focussed on:
(a)
subscriber data making it possible to resolve IP addresses (by indicating who
is using a dynamic address at a particular time);
(b)
records of user interaction with the internet, in the form of web log up to the
first slash;
(c)
the storage and disclosure by UK CSPs of third party data traversing their
networks which relates to services from other providers; and
(d)
the creation of a request filter, described as “a very complicated piece of
technology”, to speed up complex inquiries and minimise collateral intrusion.21
14.27. The Home Office sought to take the recommendations of the JCDCDB into account
and produced a pared-down draft Bill in early 2013, which I have been shown.
However, the ensuing political paralysis on the subject of communications data has
meant that save in relation to IP address resolution (which was addressed, in part, in
CTSA 2015 s21), there has been no Government mandate to take matters forward
over the past two years.
14.28. Though I asked Ministers in late 2014 for permission to show the draft Bill (or at least
a summary of it) to CSPs with whom I discussed the issues, in particular at a lengthy
meeting of the CDSG, that permission was not forthcoming. It became clear that in
the absence of unified political will to progress the proposals, there has been little
discussion of them with important stakeholders.
14.29. Meanwhile, the rest of the world has not stood still.
(a)
20
21
22
23
Lord Blencathra, Chair of the JCDCDB, complained after publication of some
of the Snowden Documents that Prism and the alleged Tempora programme22
were “highly, highly relevant” to the JCDCDB’s enquiry, but that the JCDCDB
had not been “even given any hint” of their existence.23
Ibid., November 2012, paras 36, 56, 281 and 284.
JCDCBC Report, November 2012, paras 121, 126.
Annex 7 to this Report, paras 3 and 5.
“Conservative peer Lord Blencathra hits out at online spying by GCHQ”, Guardian website, 14 October
2013. Lord Blencathra was quoted as saying: “Many of us are happy to have certain information
collected by the state but, by God, we've a right to know the parameters under which they are
operating."
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