Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to improve the level of transparency in the Government's use of personal data.

The UK has one of the most transparent regimes in the world in relation to the use of investigatory powers, which involve the accessing of personal data. The Interception of Communications Commissioner provides robust, independent oversight of the use of these investigatory powers and provides a published annual report to Parliament. This report includes statistics on public authorities’ use of interception and communications data powers, and his 2013 report contained more statistics than ever before. The Government remains committed to looking at what more can be done to enhance the transparency of our regime. The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, which was passed in July, requires the Interception of Communications Commissioner to report on a twice yearly basis in the future. In addition, the Act provides for a review of investigatory powers to be conducted by the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC. This review will be completed by 1 May 2015 and its findings will be reported to Parliament. The Government also announced, alongside the Act, the publication of an annual Government Transparency Report on investigatory powers.

The Government is fully committed to supporting a safe and secure online environment. That is why it is crucial that our law enforcement and
intelligence agencies have strictly regulated powers to ensure that those that would seek to do harm online, as well as in the real world, cannot carry out their activities with impunity. There are limits to what could be said publically about operational investigative techniques, as to do so would potentially help criminals to evade detection. However, crucial capabilities to access communications data are degrading because of rapidly changing technology and the increasing use of internet communications, whether or not those communications utilise encryption or anonymity techniques. Legislation is needed urgently to ensure that public authorities have the powers they need to investigate crime, safeguard national security and protect the public. We cannot allow cyberspace to become a haven for criminals, terrorists and paedophiles.