The UK government’s Investigatory Powers Bill, commonly known as Snoopers’ Charter, was approved by the House of Commons yesterday.
Some 444 MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 69 voted against the government’s proposal to increase surveillance of Brits’ Internet activity and the remote hacking of smartphones.
Several lawmakers, including some members of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Liberal Democrats voted against the proposal, arguing that it lacked sufficient privacy protection.
The bill will now be passed on to the House of Lords where it will be discussed further; leading to either its full adoption, further amendments or its dismissal.
Concessions
Following the session in the House of Commons – which saw 162 members of the Labour party vote in favour of the bill – Labour said the government had accepted some of its demands.
The concessions included:
- An overarching privacy clause to ensure that privacy is at the heart of the Bill
- A historic commitment that trade union activities cannot be considered sufficient reason for investigatory powers to be used
- Assurances that the ‘double lock’ process includes power for Judicial Commissioners to scrutinise the decision to issue a warrant, not just the process.
The amendments, the statement continued, are now subject to a further review of the operational case for bulk powers, secured by Labour two weeks ago and to be led by David Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation.
The news comes after the Science and Technology Committee warned that the bill risked undermining the UK’s tech sector in February this year.