Legislation: Data Retention

Earl of Erroll Excerpts

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

I will just make it clear that the Bill does not provide for the storing of the content of a communication, including the attachments to an e-mail. That would be interception, which is governed by a separate set of rules. Although we will seek to require providers to retain more data under the Bill, the amount of physical space and the electricity required for these data stores will be relatively low, particularly as providers may well take the opportunity to update to newer technology.

[The Earl of Erroll]

My Lords, as the Government are going to keep the address of every single website that someone visits, and where they are from, should the assessment not be talking about exabytes or yottabytes of data, not just the smaller amounts that the Minister is talking about, as I understand that they will have to be retained in such a way that they can be accessed by various services?

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

The noble Earl gets to the heart of what the communications data Bill is about. It is about who was communicating, when and from where, and how and with whom. It is not about the content of the communication, which CSPs will not be required to retain. To emphasise why this material is required, it is used in the investigation and prosecution of a broad range of crimes, including terrorism. CD has played a role in 95% of all serious organised crime prosecutions and every major security or counterterrorism operation over the past decade.