What is the Investigatory Powers Bill?
The bill is the biggest overhaul of laws surrounding surveillance powers for 15 years. It is designed to pull together all the various regulations governing how the spy agencies, police and other authorities can monitor suspects. Currently the system is made up of a patchwork of laws that are confusing and complex.
Why is it needed?
MI5, GCHQ and the police say their capability to track terrorists and criminals is deteriorating because so much communication is now done online and across new platforms that existing powers do not cover.
Privacy and civil liberty campaigners argue the bill is equally needed to open a debate on what snooping powers and levels of intrusion in to private lives are appropriate.
What measures will it include?
Internet companies will be required to retain customer web histories for up to a year. It will reinforce the power of spy agencies to bulk collect communications data.
• Surveillance laws revamp has faced a rocky road
Tech firms will be stopped from offering encryption services that even they cannot break. Ministers are expected to retain the power to sign off surveillance warrants but with extra oversight from judges.
The 'Doughnut' in Cheltenham, home to GCHQ Photo: ALAMY
Who will it affect?
Ministers intend for the measures to affect the communications of any UK customer regardless of where the provider is based. However, it remains to be seen how effective the laws can be in forcing the hands of overseas, and in particular US-based, tech giants.
Why is it controversial?
The balance between surveillance and privacy has also been a contentious one and the first attempts to introduce the so-called “snooper’s charter” in the previous Coalition government failed when the Liberal Democrats rejected it.
The revelations from the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013 in to the techniques of GCHQ and the US National Security Agency and bulk collection of data reignited that debate and accusations of mass surveillance.
How does the UK compare to the US?
In the wake of the furore surrounding the Snowden leaks, the US curtailed some of its surveillance powers. The Freedom Act, passed in June this year, placed new restrictions and oversight on its spy agencies. It banned the indiscriminate storage of phone records, although it retained other bulk collection powers.
