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UK: Only 'tiny handful' of ministers knew of mass surveillance, Clegg reveals

05 November 2015

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"Former deputy PM says he was astonished to learn how few cabinet members were aware of scale of UK spies’ reach into lives of British citizens.... The government finally admitted on Wednesday that the mass surveillance of British citizens began in 2001 after 9/11 and was stepped up in 2005, using powers under national security directions largely hidden in the 1984 Telecommunications Act."

See the full article: Only 'tiny handful' of ministers knew of mass surveillance, Clegg reveals (Guardian, link)

And: The surveillance bill is flawed but at last we have oversight (Guardian, link): "In government I was shocked by the scale of MI5’s secret database. Its powers are at least now in the open... That the existence of this previously top secret database was finally revealed in parliament by the home secretary on Wednesday, as part of a comprehensive new investigatory powers bill covering many other previously secret intelligence capabilities"

See Home Secretary: Statement in the House of Commons by the Home Secretary on 4 November 2015 (pdf):

"The Bill will make explicit provision for all of the powers available to the security and intelligence agencies to acquire data in bulk. That will include not only bulk interception provided under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and which is vital to the work of GCHQ, but the acquisition of bulk communications data, both relating to the UK and overseas.

That is not a new power. It will replace the power under Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984, under which successive Governments have approved the security and intelligence agencies’ access to such communications data from communication service providers."

See: A Quick Overview of the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (SCL, link)

UK government claims DIP Bill on data retention is outside scope of EU law Why they're wrong (by analogy): Does the UK’s new data retention bill violate the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights? (EU Law Analysis, link)

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