It is one subject in this election that I know more about than the other candidates on the Isle of Wight. For the past 15 years many of my projects at work have been in the cyber security field.
The legal constraints do need improving so that council’s etc cannot use the same legalisation to check on what goes in dustbin and where a child actually lives to get a school place.
I believe that such powers should be always be authorised, shown to be necessary and used in a proportionate manner. I also believe that each surveillance action should also have a Human Rights Act justification written up and approved prior commencement of the surveillance activity.
The Liberal Democrats are, and always have been, fierce supporters of civil liberties. For many years we have worked hard to protect the fundamental freedoms of UK citizens from the State.
In this parliament Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg stopped the Tories from introducing the so-called “Snooper’s Charter”. This would have kept a record of the web browsing history of every man, woman and child in this country. Nick Clegg felt that this was a worrying idea, and I am delighted he blocked these proposals.
We need a mature debate in this country about how to best tackle crime and protect privacy in the internet age. Our security and intelligence services must have the right tools to fight crime and terrorism, but this should never come at the expense of civil liberties. The idea of sacrificing freedom for the sake of security is a false choice.
That’s why Nick Clegg called for a radical revamp of the oversight of the intelligence services last year. Nick argued that there needs to be greater transparency and third party oversight in this area, to make sure that we are striking the right balance between privacy and security. Our intelligence services keep the country safe every day, so it is important that the public has trust in them too.
Liberal Democrats have a great record in government on civil liberties. We have scrapped the previous Labour Government’s disastrous ID card scheme and have legislated for a Privacy and Civil Liberties Board to be established too. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Board would be able to review UK terrorism legislation in the future, and it would look at whether we are properly addressing concerns about liberty.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is the body in Parliament that is responsible for looking at how our intelligence and security services are working. In government the Liberal Democrats have made the ISC a Committee of Parliament, given it more powers, and expanded its remit too. These reforms are an important step in the right direction, and we are committed to going further.
The Liberal Democrats want to introduce a “Digital Bill of Rights” after the 2015 election to give people more power over their data too. This will protect us against blanket surveillance without affecting our ability to tackle emerging threats or target criminals. Our online behaviour should be treated with the same respect as our offline behaviour, and that is why my party supports a “Digital Bill of Rights”.
The internet has revolutionised the way that we learn things, share new ideas and communicate with people we know. Our intelligence and security services must always keep up with technological change, but we need a reasonable level of oversight to protect the privacy of UK citizens.
I hope this answers your question.