UPDATE Lords in 2nd Attempt to Sneak UK Internet Snooping Law into Bill

The former Metropolitan Police Chief, Lord Blair, with support from Lord Carlisle, Lord King and Lord West, has once again attempted to sneak a controversial new Internet Snooping law into the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill (CTSB) after initially withdrawing it last Monday.

The huge amendment, which is very similar to 2012’s rejected Communications Data Bill and would force ISPs into logging a much bigger slice of everybody’s online activity (this would then be made more accessible to the security services), was first tabled over a week ago during the closing stages of the House of Lord’s CTSB debate (here).

However the move, which was seen by many as a dubious attempt to rush the new rules into law by effectively subverting normal procedure, ultimately ended up failing after the Lords agreed to remove the amendments at the end of Monday’s heated debate.

During the debate it became known that a revised Comms Data Bill had also been created, which was designed in response to 2012’s scathing Joint Committee report. The JC’s report described the Comms Data Bill as “overkill” and called for it to be “significantly amended” (here). According to Lord Blencathra, the revised bill resolved 95% of the JC’s objections but has never been seen.

On Monday’s debate several calls were made to see this revised bill and it was suggested that the four Lords might reintroduce their amendments if the revised bill could not be produced. So far this appears not to have happened and thus the Lords are carrying out their threat.

An updated MARSHALLED LIST OF Amendments (scroll down to 11A), which is set to be debated on Monday 2nd February 2015, now appears to include the controversial amendments. Interestingly representatives from all of the major parties said during last Monday’s debate that, regardless of whether they supported the law, this was not the way to get it introduced. Never the less it’s likely that Monday’s debate will make for nervous viewing among the bills many opponents.

We will update this article after that debate.

UPDATE 2nd Feb 2015

At the end of the day the Lords predictably did not push the amendment to a vote, but as reported before we do anticipate that a new bill will surface sometime this year.