If you had gone down to the Royal Festival Hall today you
would have had a bit of a surprise. The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary, was
on hand to explain how keen the Labour Party has become to work constructively
with the Conservatives in the Coalition Government to ensure that a revised
Communications Data Bill manages to be considered by Parliament in the not too
distant future. Yes, there will be measures that the Liberal Democrats (and many other members of the House of Lords) will resist (and defeat), but a lot of non-controversial
proposals - as outlined in the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s report on the Government’s
first attempt to draft a revised RIPA proposal - ought to sail through.
We must have proper checks and balances in play. And a system
of regulation which reflects that the internet has made us think in
different ways about data we generate when using the web. We need to review what now comprises our most sensitive personal information. Official access to the more sensitive elements - which shed light on the most intimate aspects of our lives - must be carefully considered before such access is authorised. Official contacts with
activists, perhaps carried out covertly, will require the most careful scrutiny before such applications and operations are
approved. Interception Commissioners must have their roles changed to ensure
that they play a much more engaging role with the general public. If the Government
thinks that it is not appropriate for anything other than a vague parliamentary
debate about the maintenance of “capabilities”, then it should think again. Where is the Intelligence Surveillance Commissioner
when the press are baying for senior heads to interview? Your guess is as good
as mine.
So, should Labour win the next General election,
it’s possible that that some very interesting changes will be considered
in the oversight of the suits – the select group of Commissioners whose responsibility
lies in regulating various areas of the UK's surveillance infrastructure. Too many of their reviews are
currently paper based. New commissioners will be primed to speak to the media
on a much wider range of surveillance issues. These days, there are so many different angles
to stories that even I’m being drawn into making public comments for the media
on cybercrime and RIPA these days. Watch out Radio 4 and Newsnight. I’m heading
their way, soon. What Yvette is
suggesting was that a far more fundamental review of surveillance commissioning should occur. Now, where did we put all those papers
for the creation of an Inspectorate General?
Yvette was kind
enough to mention the Communication Data Bill a number of times in her speech.
This stuff is important to her – and she is determined that the conversations currently underway
between Home Office officials and the favoured CSPs won’t form the only consultation model in town.
Conversations should also be taking place with representatives of civil society. Home Office officials should continue to talk to the Open
Rights Group, Privacy International, Liberty, and No2ID. Such officials will need to cast away their suits and ties, and grow beards and and start dressing much more casually to ingratiate themselves with Demos and other think tanks, to understand
what other types of "real people" feel about this stuff .
It was a good speech. Yvette knows how to take a text that
has been written for her and turn it into an engaging review of these broad topics. She probably saw me
(as did her speechwriter) nodding quite vigorously as she went through what a revised Communications Data Bill is likely to contain, given its drubbing at
its first outing. Then I had a few quiet words with her after the event to discuss
next steps, etc.
So if you see Yvette and Theresa May enjoying discussions over
a posh burger some time in the summer, you may know what its all about.
I do enjoy working in this particular policy area. And I don't care which side I influence, so
long as I nudge all responsible stakeholders in the direction of the sensible and pragmatic policies they really ought to be implementing, not just considering.
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