Telegraph - The Government is creating a surveillance state

Even in the name of countering crime, why should the state know everything about us?

The evidence is growing by the week that the Government is creating a surveillance state.

It was confirmed yesterday that a database containing the international travel records of all citizens is being compiled; and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, is drawing up plans to keep similar details of every phone call and email that is sent.

In addition, the records of all children are to be held on a system called ContactPoint, a national ID database is currently being developed, all health records currently held by GPs will be centrally available and a database of DNA profiles, ostensibly for criminals, is being built by stealth.

Meanwhile, the ubiquitous CCTV cameras in every public space make personal privacy increasingly hard to maintain. Even in the name of countering crime or combating terrorism, why should the state know where you are going, where you have been and whom you call while watching everyone's movements on camera?

Concerns about these developments are no longer confined to a few people dismissed by ministers as paranoid obsessives who fail to understand the security requirements of the modern state. Last year, a Commons select committee made a number of recommendations about the need for new regulations, controls and restrictions on state accumulation of information about its citizens. A few days ago, a House of Lords committee published a report stating unequivocally that monitoring the everyday activities of innocent individuals was becoming "pervasive" and "routine". The peers noted that this intrusiveness had altered the relationship between the state and its citizens and represented "one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the Second World War". The peers also observed that most Britons were unaware of the extent of these surveillance practices and did not fully appreciate their potential consequences. One reason for this is the lamentable record of the Commons in curtailing these developments.

However, while the Government says it recognises that many people may well feel uncomfortable with the increase in surveillance it insists is for their own good and proposes to do nothing to curtail it. Indeed, the Coroners and Justice Bill currently before parliament contains powers to let Whitehall departments and other state agencies use and share personal data for whatever purpose a minister sees fit. This removes protections that exist in statute precisely to stop this happening.

If parliament is really serious about halting the advance of the surveillance state it must draw the line now and throw out this pernicious measure.


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