The Lords Constitution Committee has warned that better checks and balances are needed on the use of surveillance if the basis of open democracy is not to be eroded by incursions into citizens' privacy.
The Committee has published the results of an investigation into the amount and nature of surveillance in the UK.
"The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state and other organisations risks undermining the long standing traditions of privacy and individual freedom which are vital for democracy," said Lord Goodlad, the Committee's chairman. "If the public are to trust that information about them is not being improperly used there should be much more openness about what data is collected, by whom and how it is used."
The Committee expressed concern about how widespread surveillance was and what a routine part of life it had become.
"The UK now has more CCTV cameras and a bigger National DNA Database than any other country. There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state," said Goodlad.
The Committee said that Government should place state use of surveillance within the grasp of the courts, creating judicial oversight for the use of surveillance and compensation for victims of its misuse.
It also said that the Government should reconsider whether local authorities should be allowed to conduct surveillance under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
It also recommended that the Government be forced to commission an independent privacy impact assessment every time it proposes the collection of new data on citizens, and that it ask the Information Commissioner's advice on laws which have privacy implications.
"We regret that the Government have often failed to consult the Information Commissioner at an early stage of policy development with privacy implications," says the report. "We recommend that the Government instruct departments to consult the Information Commissioner at the earliest stages of policy development and that the Government should set out in the explanatory notes to bills how and when they consulted the Information Commissioner, and with what result."
The Committee also said that the public needed to be better informed about the extent and implications of surveillance.
"We recommend that the Government and local authorities should help citizens to understand the privacy and other implications for themselves and for society that may result from the use of surveillance and data processing. Government should involve schools, learned and other societies, and voluntary organisations in public discussion of the risks and benefits of surveillance and data processing," says the report.
The Committee also recommended that a mandatory code of practice be created to guide private and public operators of closed circuit television (CCTV) systems.
