“The control orders regime for detaining suspects who have been neither charged nor prosecuted has been widely discredited.”
The Times, 17th September 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Why are we asking this now?
Because a government watchdog has warned against the use of phone-tap evidence in court, following mock trials in which its use gave every indication of being a disaster. Sir Paul Kennedy, the Interception of Communications Commissioner and a former Lord Justice of Appeal, said he could see no way to overcome problems with such evidence, and that the Government should drop its plans. Use of the technique at trials through March and April revealed “real legal and operational difficulties inherent in using intercept as evidence in the UK”, he said, before adding: “I cannot see a way to safely overcome these”. Aside from the immediate question of whether the law should be changed, intercepted phone calls have come under the spotlight with increasing frequency. Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who now advises David Cameron, revealed this week that he had his phone bugged during his reign at the paper. Last year Sadiq Khan, a Labour MP, had his phone bugged during conversations with a constituent who was suspected of involvement in terrorism.”
The Independent, 23rd July 2009
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“The proposed use of phone tapping evidence to secure convictions in terrorist and criminal trials has been shown in secret tests to be unworkable.”
The Times, 22nd July 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“The Home Office’s revised proposals to monitor all text messages, email and internet use will have poor safeguards, prove very costly and not even work, London School of Economics researchers have found.”
The Guardian, 17th June 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The state is allowed to bug communication between lawyers and their clients, the House of Lords has said. The UK’s highest court ruled that spy law the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) allows lawyers’ conversations to be bugged.”
OUT-LAW.com, 23rd March 2009
Source: www.out-law.com
“The prime minister’s plans to allow phone tap evidence to be used in court could be scuppered by human rights and privacy laws, an independent review ordered by Gordon Brown has found.”
The Times, 22nd February 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“The multi-million pound prosecution of a local newspaper journalist and the police source who ‘leaked’ stories to her collapsed today after evidence gathered against them in a police bugging operation was declared inadmissible.”
The Times, 28th November 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“The government has suffered another defeat in the House of Lords over its counter-terrorism proposals, this time over the use of intercept evidence.”
BBC News, 11th November 2008
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Britain’s most senior Asian policeman was illegally bugged and spied on in a clandestine operation sanctioned by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, according to leaked Scotland Yard documents.”
The Times, 17th August 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“More than 500,000 official ‘spying’ requests for private communications data such as telephone records were made last year, a report says.”
BBC News, 22nd July 2008
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“No decision has been taken to create a huge database containing details of all phone calls, e-mails and internet use, security minister Lord West says.”
BBC News, 17th July 2008
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Liberty and Others v United Kingdom
European Court of Human Rights
“Complaints by civil liberty organisations about secret interception by the Ministry of Defence of their external communications were not dealt with adequately under the Interception of Communications Act 1985 which had not been formulated with sufficient clarity to give individuals protection.”
The Times, 11th july 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Please note the Times Law Reports are only available free on Times Online for 21 days from the date of publication.
“Europe’s top rights court ruled against the government on Tuesday for intercepting telephone calls between British and Irish rights groups and their clients, violating their right to privacy.”
Reuters, 1st July 2008
Source: www.reuters.com
“Prison staff bugged conversations between a convicted killer and his solicitor without authorisation, Jack Straw admitted yesterday.”
The Times, 16th May 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“The use of intercept evidence in court for the first time could be stalled by demands from the intelligence services for a right of veto over the use of the transcripts from their secret bugging operations. The CIA is also unhappy that its intercepted phone calls or conversations between suspected terrorists could be produced in British courts.”
The Independent, 7th February 2008
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“Gordon Brown will announce the findings of an independent review today that will open the door to the use of intercept evidence in court.”
The Times, 6th February 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Dozens of prisoners in British jails are routinely under covert electronic surveillance, security sources told The Times last night.”
The Times, 5th February 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Bugging devices planted in a prison telephone were illegally used to record privileged conversations between an inmate and his solicitor, The Times has learnt.”
The Times, 5th February 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Despite press reports to the contrary, public authorities tapped just 1,435 phones and not 250,000 in a nine month period in 2006. The larger figure includes less heavily regulated requests for information about phone usage.”
OUT-LAW.com, 30th January 2008
Source: www.out-law.com
“The prospect of phone-tap evidence being used in court, an issue at the heart of the dispute over proposed anti-terrorism measures, received a blow yesterday when the prime minister’s eavesdropping watchdog opposed the idea.”
The Guardian, 29th January 2008
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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