Law Society welcomes LPP protections in investigatory powers bill

The report found in general that the proposals are too broad and intrusive.

Specifically, it found that protections for journalists’ and lawyer-client communications should be added to the face of the bill; the case for bulk surveillance powers has not been made – and such powers have the potential to breach the Human Rights Act; no formal case has been made for the retention of bulk personal datasets (BPDs) – huge files containing personal information about vast numbers of people.

It also found that justifications for surveillance must be tightened, and national security defined in legislation; that intelligence-sharing safeguards are insufficient – and this may further human rights abuses; and that the government should reconsider its proposal to enforce extra-territoriality.

Christine McLintock, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: “Ensuring our security as a nation and as individuals is vital, however legal professional privilege is key to the rule of law and is essential to the administration of justice. It ensures that a lawyer and client can exchange information without fear of it becoming known to a third party, without the clear permission of the client – unless of course the communications have any criminal purpose in which case the protection does not apply under existing powers.

“In our response to the Joint Select Committee call for written evidence recently, we emphasised our view that legal professional privilege should be expressly protected within proposed legislation rather than through a code of practice, as had been included in the draft bill in an attempt to mitigate against any possible abuse of the powers where ‘sensitive professions’, including lawyers, are concerned.”

She added: “All other legislation which relates to investigatory powers expressly provides for legal professional privilege and we fully support the joint committee’s view that it should be included in the face of the bill.

“We look forward to engaging with the UK government, as has also been recommended in the report, at the next stage of the bill’s progress.”

The joint committee has made 86 recommendations to help ensure that any new bill to be taken forward is workable and includes proper safeguards.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “This report shows just how much homework the government has to do on this landmark legislation. Despite reams of evidence from the Home Office, the committee finds the case for unprecedented powers to bulk hack, intercept and collect our private data has not been made.

“The government needs to pause, take stock and redraft – to do anything else would show astonishing contempt for parliamentarians’ concerns and our national security.”