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David Ward MPMember of Parliament for Bradford East@DavidWardMP on Twitter and Facebook |
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David Ward MP <>
Civil Liberties and Snooping
The news headlines over the past couple of weeks have caused me some dismay; but rest assured that my Party and I have a proud history of defending civil liberties, both in opposition and more recently in the Coalition Government, and we do not intend to change this stance now. I will never stand by and let this or any other Government take away the civil liberties that we have fought so hard to keep safe and I will have no hesitation to vote against any such proposals.
Indeed, my Party have long sought to reverse the substantial erosion of individual freedoms that took place under Labour. We successfully opposed the previous Labour Government's undermining of data privacy, we stood up against ID cards, the National DNA database, and we have ended the extension of CCTV networks to council snoopers that had got out of control, to name but a few examples. Just a few months ago at our Spring Conference in Gateshead, we reaffirmed our commitment to 'undo the damage done... [by] Labour's assault on basic freedoms'. We called for stronger safeguards on existing surveillance measures to guarantee that the balance of power is firmly in favour of ordinary citizens. We affirmed our longstanding tradition of protecting human rights, and agreed that it is 'our duty to safeguard basic freedoms against the encroachment of state power'.
I am told that the latest proposals will not allow the Government to delve at will into the content of any internet communications - including social media. The police and security services already have the ability to monitor emails and phone calls where they need to access this data for the prevention or investigation of serious crime. It will only be in criminal investigations that the police or intelligence agencies would be able to apply for a warrant to intercept communications - and even then this would have to be approved by the Home Secretary before it could go ahead.
Nevertheless, the concerns of many of my constituents about granting any further powers for the security services and I have urgently called on both Coalition Party leaders to ensure that this Government does not follow Labour by sounding the retreat on the protection of civil liberties in the United Kingdom. The full and exact details of these proposals have not yet however been bought forward by the Home Office. As I understand it, we will have a draft Bill and full pre-legislative scrutiny. There will thus be ample opportunity for comment and evidence offered by various civil liberties campaign groups. But when the proposals are released, they must be carefully scrutinised to get the balance between security and liberty exactly right. It continues to be essential that our civil liberties are safeguarded and that, as you quite rightly point out, the state is not given any more powers to snoop on its citizens at will.
Please be assured that my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I will continue to put the protection of civil liberties at the top of the political agenda as the Coalition Agreement makes clear.
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