We need spy powers to fight new threats, says top lawyer

The Attorney General Jeremy Wright told the Express & Star that the controversial Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed a snoopers' charter, 'struck the right balance' to ensure protecting people's privacy.

On a visit to the Crown Prosecution Service's Midlands base in Birmingham, the MP said: "Advances in technology have made it harder for security services and law enforcement to find out when and how criminals are communicating with each other. In response, we must ensure that the powers required by law enforcement to fight crime and terror are not degraded.

"There is a huge breadth of different types of offending where communications data is extremely relevant and one of the things to get across is this is just not about security services working out what terrorist cells are saying to each other, although that is very important, it is also about a wide variety of offending which people in this country would very much want to see successfully prosecuted and stamped out.

"What we want to see is properly circumscribed legislation so that we can prosecute not just terrorists but child abusers, and other really serious criminals. There is one case where we successfully prosecuted an online paedophile network that abused exceptionally young children, including babies, which was screened over the internet.

"What the Crown Prosecution Service said to me is that those convictions would not have been successful without access to communications data to establish who was talking to who, where and when."

The law being looked at by MPs requires web and phone companies to store records of websites visited by every citizen for 12 months for access by police, security services and other public bodies.

It also makes explicit in law for the first time security services' powers for the bulk collection of large volumes of personal communications data.

And for the first time it enshrines in law the powers of the security services and police to hack into and bug computers and phones.

There are also plans for a new legal obligation on companies to assist in these operations to bypass encryption.

Judges will also scrutinised requests intercept data approved by the Home Secretary with the power to veto orders.

But campaigners have said the legislation will erode people's liberties and create a 'police state'.

Mr Wright said: "This is not about accessing what you have said or not what you discussed in a Whatsapp group, it is data that surrounds that. The who, where and when. This is what this is talking about.

"We are also putting in some very important safeguards. So for the most intrusive types of interceptions we are suggesting that if the Home Secretary issues a warrant, that will have to go to a judge to see if the decision is a satisfactory one.

"The aim is to provide security from all types of crime. The serious crime unit I spoke to said communications data is vital for 95 per cent of cases they deal with.

"Getting the balance right is not easy. People may disagree of course but I am sure we have got the balance right between the powers for the law and security authorities and the safeguards for people's privacy. Judicial oversight is an extremely positive step forward.

"There is always a danger if you create powers they will be used in ways that you would not expect or approve of but the purpose of drawing together all the strands of investigatory powers in one piece of legislation is so everyone can understand it better, it improves enforcement of it, and I think people will be much more confident that those safeguards will be effective."

Mr Wright also promised safeguards for journalists, describing their relationship with confidential sources as needing 'special protection'.