Review recommends changes to search and surveillance laws
Tuesday, 30 January 2018, 1:29 pm
Press Release: Law Commission
Joint review recommends changes to search and surveillance
laws
Police should be able to conduct a wider range of
surveillance but should exercise their powers more
transparently, according to a new report.
The Law
Commission and the Ministry of Justice’s joint review of
the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 re-examines the balance
between enabling effective law enforcement and protecting
people’s human rights.
Law Commissioner Donna
Buckingham says that the Act, which governs the search and
surveillance activities of Police and some other enforcement
agencies, already works well.
"The Act does not need a
major overhaul. All we are proposing are amendments to make
the law clearer and to update it in response to the effects
of new technology."
Since 2012 when the Act became law,
technology has moved on. People and organisations generate
far more data than ever before and store it in a wide
variety of places, including online. New surveillance
technologies have also developed.
Donna Buckingham says
that it is important for Police and other enforcement
agencies to be able to keep up with these
developments.
"Police officers need to access data and to
use new technologies to investigate crime, but people also
have a right to privacy and personal integrity. Our search
and surveillance laws need to balance those
interests."
The report proposes requiring enforcement
officers to take into account certain principles before
exercising search and surveillance powers, such as the need
to minimise privacy intrusions.
It also includes
recommendations to regulate undercover operations and to
limit the ability to search an electronic device, such as a
smartphone, without a warrant
The Final Report reviewing the Search and
Surveillance Act is available on the Law Commission's
website.
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