MI6. Britain to recruit 2000 spies in wake of Paris attacks. Demotix/ Amer Ghazzal. All rights reserved.The Home Secretary, Rt Hon Theresa May MP, on 4 November 2015 stated that the new Investigatory Powers Bill represents “a signature departure” from past attempts to reform the current regime governing the use of surveillance powers by public authorities in the UK.
According to the Home Secretary, this new legislative framework will be “clear and understandable”, “strengthen safeguards” and “introduce world-leading oversight arrangements”. The expressed intention to fulfill these three key commitments are to be welcomed following the unsuccessful Communications Data Bill 2012 (otherwise known as the “Snoopers’ Charter” for its far-reaching scope) and the roundly criticized emergency legislation of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (DRIPA) that was fast-tracked through Parliament (a substantive part of which was recently held by the High Court as inconsistent with EU law in David and Watson v Home Secretary).
Accessibility and foreseeability
A clear consensus that emerged from the three reports (by the Intelligence Security Committee (ISC), David Anderson QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (otherwise known as the Anderson Report) and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)) drawn on by the UK Government to review the existing legal framework was the need for any future law to be clear and precise in its language, requirements and safeguards.
