Investigatory Powers Bill, House of Lords report stage

The Commission welcomes and support new clauses and amendments tabled by the government, which:

• improve the general privacy duties under Clause 2
• reduce the period for approval of major modifications in urgent cases from 5 to 3 days
• improve the safeguards for sensitive material including in relation to legally privileged material and for journalists

There are further improvements that we consider should be made to these parts of the Bill. For reasons explained in the briefing, we recommend supporting amendments to introduce additional safeguards in the following areas:

• to restrict the use of the powers in the Bill where there is a reasonably available less intrusive means to achieve the desired result
• to further improve safeguards for sensitive information

Download the Investigatory Powers Bill (briefing in support of amendments to Parts 1 and 2), report stage (day 1), House of Lords