“Emergency” Data Retention Bill Already Being Challenged

Two MPs, Tom Watson and David Davis, are challenging the DRIP bill that the government forced through Parliament last week. The bill was rushed through on short notice under the guise of an emergency, in response to the possibility of legal action by the Open Rights Group.

The government claimed this bill was necessary to ensure security against terrorism and other serious crimes, but they’ve failed to address the problems that made the previous law likely to be challenged. As David Davis noted in the Commons last week:

“The [European Court of Justice], as a number of speakers have mentioned, branded the untargeted mass collection of our data […] as a ‘wide-ranging and particularly serious interference with’ our ‘fundamental rights’.

“It is arguably the case that, in some ways, Britain is the most extreme example of that across western Europe. Because the Bill does nothing to correct that particular aspect, it is likely to face legal challenge, and may well fail as a result. It will not be beneficial to security in this country if that happens.”

The Open Rights Group are also planning to challenge the new law and I encourage you to join them to help make that successful.