Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that end-to-end encryption continues to protect personal privacy while enabling law enforcement to detect serious criminal activity.

This Government supports strong encryption, which protects our citizens online. However, this must not and need not be at the expense of public safety, which is this Government’s first priority.

Targeted investigatory powers allow the authorities to investigate terrorists, paedophiles and the most serious criminals and are subject to robust safeguards, including judicial authorisations and oversight to protect people’s privacy.