Letter to the Home Secretary
3rd April 2012
URGENT
Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Home Secretary
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Dear Theresa
Following an announcement over the weekend that the government is planning to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation, I have received a large amount of correspondence from angry constituents who are strongly opposed to the idea.
I have tried to summarise their various concerns and would be grateful if you could answer the following points: 1) When was this issue discussed in Parliament? The first I knew about these proposals was when I read about them in the Sunday newspapers, but I assume such an important issue would have been raised in Parliament first and not simply leaked to the press over the Easter recess at a time when it’s impossible for MPs to find out more. For some reason I must have missed this announcement, but if you could let me have further details I will look it up in Hansard.
2) What is it about these proposals which differentiate them from the similar sounding plans put forward by the previous Labour government, which we vigorously opposed at the time on the basis they were a fundamental infringement of civil liberties?
3) Out of similar principles (whilst in government) we abandoned the practice of taking DNA samples from everyone arrested by the police even though the police were quite clear that doing so can help solve crimes. If we take the view that it is wrong to hold DNA evidence on people who have not been found guilty of any crime, then I would be grateful if you could tell me how we are going to justify holding electronic data on people who have not been arrested, let alone found guilty of any crime.
4) Have we had any guidance from the European Union that we should be doing this and what is the position of other EU countries?
As yet, nobody has contacted me in support of these plans and I look forward to being able to furnish a full response as quickly as possible.
Yours ever
David T C Davies MP