Civil Liberties - Snoopers' Charter Delayed

The measure, criticised by civil liberty campaigners as a "snooper's charter", has been taken out of a more general Home Office- and Ministry of Justice-sponsored crime and courts bill, which ministers need to get on to the statute book as fast as possible.
The decision to have a standalone bill follows Nick Clegg's insistence that it must be accompanied by the "strongest possible safeguards". These are expected to include oversight case by case by a surveillancecommissioner, a review of existing measures to protect the security of everyone's data and the publication of a privacy impact statement. MORE