The Bill states that the Secretary of State shall issue a code
of practice relating to the retention by communications service
providers such as ISPs of communications data. Such data would
include details of the sender and recipient of e-mail and logs of
web sites visited, but not the content of communications. The Bill
provides that the purpose of retention can be national security –
or alternatively, “for the purposes of the prevention or detection
of crime or the prosecution of offenders.”
Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords, is quoted by The
Telegraph describing the Bill as giving the Government the right
“to commandeer private and personal information on the merest
suspicion of a criminal offence quite unrelated to terrorism,
something very few outside Tony Blair’s Cabinet actually want.”
The House of Lords voted by 228 votes to 133 to limit retention
powers to purposes of national security only. It was one of seven
defeats for the Government’s Bill. However, Government ministers
are determined to fight the defeats and, according to press
reports, still hope to pass the Bill before Christmas. According to
The Times, Mr Blunkett accused the Tories of “disembowelling” vital
parts of “a Bill to protect this country”.
The UK association for ISPs, the ISPA, initially backed the Bill
in principle. However, it has expressed grave reservations since
the Bill was published.
