New laws to protect our citizens from threats such as terrorism
and child sexual abuse have been passed as part of an update to
the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.
As technology has rapidly advanced and the type of threats the UK
faces evolved, it is crucial the UK stays ahead of our
adversaries to keep the British people safe.
Urgent, targeted changes made to the Investigatory Powers Act
after the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act received royal
assent today (25th April) will ensure the intelligence services
and law enforcement have the powers they need to keep pace with a
range of evolving threats from terrorists, hostile state actors,
child abusers and criminal gangs.
The act will also help to protect the privacy of British citizens
by strengthening the world-leading safeguards within the 2016
Act.
The new act makes focused amendments to the existing regime to
ensure that it remains fit-for-purpose following an independent
review of the law by KBE KC.
The updates today:
-
Make changes to the bulk personal dataset regime, to improve
the intelligence agencies' ability to respond with greater
agility and speed to existing and emerging threats to
national security. They will improve the quality and speed of
analysts' decision making, improving their ability to keep
the public safe in a digital age, whilst adhering to strong,
proportionate safeguards and with independent oversight.
-
Will enhance the existing world leading safeguards to support
the Investigatory Powers
Commissioner in carrying out oversight of public
authorities' use of investigatory powers.
-
Modify the notices regimes to ensure the efficacy
of the existing powers in the context of new technologies and
the commercial structures of a modern digital economy. This
includes ensuring that exceptional lawful access is
maintained where necessary and proportionate for public
safety, while also protecting the privacy of citizens and the
ability of companies to develop cutting-edge technologies.
-
Increase the resilience of the warrantry authorisation
processes to allow greater operational agility for the
intelligence agencies and National Crime Agency. This will
help to ensure they can always get lawful access to
information in a timely way so that they can respond to the
most serious national security and organised crime threats.
-
Update the conditions for use of Internet Connection
Records to ensure that these can be used effectively
to target the most serious types of criminal activity and
national security threats without a corresponding increase in
levels of intrusion, underpinned by a robust independent
oversight regime.
The updated conditions for the use of internet connection records
will enable the National Crime Agency to track down child sex
abusers more quickly, boosting our efforts to protect children at
risk of harm and bring offenders to justice.
Security Minister said:
As Security Minister, my first priority is to keep the British
public safe.
The world-leading Investigatory Powers regime is crucial to
keeping the public safe. That's why we're making urgent, targeted
changes to the Investigatory Powers Act to ensure our laws keep
pace with rapidly changing technology and to guard against modern
threats to national security.
These changes mean that not only will our citizens be better
protected from serious dangers such as terrorism and child sexual
abuse online – their privacy will be better protected too
The UK was already a world leader in ensuring privacy can be
protected without compromising security. The amendments passed
today will maintain and enhance the existing high standards for
safeguarding privacy.
The reforms to the act will ensure the powers continue to be
subject to robust independent oversight. Access to individuals'
data will happen only, where it is proportionate, necessary to
prevent the most serious forms of crime, and with robust
protections in place.
