Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department took into account the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill when drafting the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department has already made clear that the Government accepted the substance of all of the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill (Hansard: House of Commons Debate, 7 January 2013, Column 17). The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 did not replicate the proposals that were included in the Draft Communications Data Bill. The Act simply preserved existing capabilities and extended current safeguards to respond to the European Court of Justice judgment on the Data Retention Directive 2006.

Alongside the Act, it was also announced that we will reduce the number of public authorities that are able to access communications data under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and require all local authorities to process communications data requests through a centralised "Single Point of Contact" service provided by the National Anti Fraud Network. Whilst these changes respond to some of the Joint Committee’s recommendations, they do not close the key capability gaps which the Joint Committee recognised needed to be closed. These capability gaps have not been addressed and continue to grow.