Pledge to fight on as spy laws ruled illegal
The Government will appeal the High Court's ruling after surveillance laws rushed through Parliament in a matter of days were declared unlawful.
In a victory for West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson and former Tory shadow home secretary David Davis, the judgment ruled the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (Dripa) was incompatible with the British public's right to respect for private life.
Dripa allows the Home Secretary to order communications companies to retain communications data for 12 months. It catches the records of communications of everyone in the UK, including the emails, calls, texts and web activity of MPs, journalists, lawyers, doctors and other correspondence that may be confidential or privileged.
It is the first time that MPs have successfully used a judicial review to force the Government to change course.
But security minister John Hayes said: "We disagree absolutely with this judgment and will seek an appeal.
"Communications data is not just crucial in the investigation of serious crime. It is also a fundamental part of investigating other crimes, such as stalking and harassment, as well as locating missing people."
There were concerns that the data would be accessible by hundreds of public authorities, many of which can authorise access themselves for reasons that campaign group Liberty said had 'nothing to do with the investigation of serious crime'.
Mr Watson said: "The Government was warned that rushing through security legislation would end up with botched law.
"Now the High Court has said they must come back to Parliament and do it properly. The Government gave MPs one day to discuss the legislation which was wrongly represented as respectful of people's right to privacy: it has until March 2016 to make sure that the law is re-written."
