'Significant work' needed for Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, say MPs and peers

The government was right to bring forward the Draft Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill but significant changes still need to be made, a committee of MPs and peers has said.

In the last ten days three cross-party committees have raised concerns against the IP Bill, including both the Intelligence and Security Committee and the Science and Technology Committee.

Today, an all-party joint committee appointed to consider the Bill supported the objective of ensuring that various existing powers be held together in one piece of legislation.

However, the parliamentarians held reservations about the document's clarity and have made 86 recommendations aimed at ensuring the powers are practicable, readily understandable, and properly safeguarded.

MPs and peers found the case for powers to bulk hack, intercept, and collect private data had not been made by the Home Office.

Chairman of the committee, Lord Murphy of Torfaen, said: 'The prime minister described the draft Bill as being the most important in the current session. It is indeed significant in scale and scope and comes at a time when public debates over the tension between civil liberties and security are prominent.

'There is much to be commended in the draft Bill, but the Home Office has a significant amount of further work to do before parliament can be confident that the provisions have been fully thought through.'

Among the recommendations, the committee wants the home secretary to make its approach to encryption clearer after approving Theresa May's plans not to compromise security or create 'backdoors'.

In addition, the committee wants fuller justification for the use of bulk powers to be published alongside the Bill.

Lord Murphy said: 'Much of the important detail about the way the new legislation will work is to be contained in a set of codes of practice. We echo the calls of other parliamentary committees that these should be published alongside the Bill.'

Further, it was recommended that a joint committee of the two Houses of Parliament be established so that it can review the Bill's powers after five years.

On ensuring the Bill is properly safeguarded, the committee welcomed the greater involvement of judges in authorising warrants for intrusive capabilities.

'The creation of a new judicial oversight body and the much greater involvement of judges in the authorisation of warrants allowing for intrusive activities are both to be welcomed,' said Lord Murphy.

'We make a series of recommendations which aim to ensure that the new system will deliver the increased independence and oversight which has been promised.'

Elsewhere in the report, the committee of MPs and peers also warned of the threats to legal professional privilege, which would allow the state to spy on conversations between lawyers and their clients.

Writing in Wired, the Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Strasburger, said the IP Bill must be 'fundamentally rethought and rebuilt'.

Campaign group Liberty said it was clear that the government's proposals were deeply flawed and has called for a complete overhaul of the draft Bill.

'The government needs to pause, take stock and redraft - to do anything else would show astonishing contempt for parliamentarians' concerns and our national security,' said Shami Chakrabarti, Liberty's director.