UK’s Snoopers’ Charter
The UK Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) grants the government power to collect and store information about everything people do and say online. This includes emails, texts, calls, location data and internet history, and enables the government to hack into phones and computers. The government is allowed to do this whether or not someone is suspected of criminal activity. Not only does this law intrude upon the private life of all individuals, it also interferes with the rights of journalists and lawyers to communicate confidentially with sources and clients respectively. Liberty took a case to the UK High Court aiming to have the Act repealed.
In July 2019, the court ruled against Liberty and upheld the legality of the IPA. Liberty are preparing an appeal, but have been granted an extension to wait until a decision has been reached by the European Court of Human Rights in a separate, but related case.
UK’s Snoopers’ Charter
Organisation Name
Liberty
Country/Jurisdiction
United Kingdom
Amount Granted
EUR 72,045
Current Status
Ongoing
Grant type
Litigation Support
Description
The UK Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) grants the government power to collect and store information about everything people do and say online. This includes emails, texts, calls, location data and internet history, and enables the government to hack into phones and computers. The government is allowed to do this whether or not someone is suspected of criminal activity. Not only does this law intrude upon the private life of all individuals, it also interferes with the rights of journalists and lawyers to communicate confidentially with sources and clients respectively. Liberty took a case to the UK High Court aiming to have the Act repealed.
In July 2019, the court ruled against Liberty and upheld the legality of the IPA.
On 8 April 2022, the High Court gave permission for Liberty to appeal so the case continues.
Supported by Liberty’s strong advocacy campaign, interest around the case is high, helping to raise public awareness about the government’s surveillance activities. During the period leading up to the High Court case, Liberty received over 100 queries from the public relating to surveillance.
A separate outcome is that the litigation revealed that MI5, the UK’s Security Service, had unlawfully mishandled personal data. Liberty and Privacy International have teamed up to start a separate case against MI5 for this illegality.
In August 2023, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment, upholding Liberty’s argument that the regime for sharing material from bulk personal datasets with overseas states is unlawful.
But the Court ruled against Liberty’s arguments on several other grounds, including on legal protections given to journalists. It also sent another point – looking at safeguards for journalistic material collected through bulk hacking by the intelligence agencies – back to the Divisional Court to be heard again.
In early 2024, there was some success with the government agreeing to bring in new safeguards which would protect journalists from having confidential journalistic material, such as their communications with sources, easily accessed by state bodies.
"The UK Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) grants the government power to collect and store information about everything people do and say online"
Strategic Goal
For the courts to rule that the current surveillance regime violates the rights to privacy and free expression and for the UK government to implement a surveillance system in the UK that is targeted and respects human rights.
Organisation Name
Women’s Link Worldwide
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