Councils will lose the right to snoop using terror law

Published 04th Nov 2009

Town halls will today be banned by law from using anti-terror powers to spy on 'bin criminals' and litter louts.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson says that using controversial Big Brother powers for trivial reasons is undermining faith in the surveillance regime.

He will outline legislation preventing councils from using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act unless they are probing a serious crime.

This could include commercial fly-tipping or benefit fraud.

It follows a string of revelations by the Daily Mail about over-zealous officials tracking the law-abiding public.

These include spying on people suspected of putting their bins out on the wrong day, those who drop litter and parents attempting to cheat school catchment area rules.

Mr Johnson said: 'If agencies use RIPA powers for such trivial reasons, the case for using them to track down serious offenders who put public safety at risk rapidly diminishes in the eyes of the public.'

The power to make a RIPA authorisation is likely to be passed to executive officers only, rather than low-ranking bureaucrats.

Last night the Local Government Association admitted urgent steps must be taken to 'rebuild public confidence in the use of surveillance'.

The number of Big Brother snooping missions carried out by the police, town halls, and other Government departments has rocketed by 44 per cent in only two years - to a rate of 1,381 new cases every day.

The law passed nine years ago to ostensibly fight terrorism. But access to the spy powers has since been extended to a total of 653 state bodies, including 474 councils.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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