Minister defends email and text surveillance
Government proposals to keep records of emails, text messages and phone calls from across Europe for longer periods of time could help track down terrorists, John Hutton has said.
The cabinet minister was speaking ahead of an emergency meeting of EU security ministers on Wednesday, which was called following last Thursday’s terror attacks on London and which home secretary Charles Clarke will chair.
Mr Clarke will use the meeting to push for a Europe-wide standard on how long telecommunications data should be kept. Supported by France, it would require companies to keep details of mobile phone calls, text and email communications for up to three years.
Speaking last night on BBC Radio Four’s Westminster Hour, Mr Hutton defended the plan, saying telephone and internet records have “time and time again proved themselves to be essential components of criminal investigations”.
He said the plan would not involve individual conversations being recorded and these transcripts made available, but was more about keeping information on “who is speaking to whom and when”.
“In the UK for example, we have a voluntary code. This data is kept for between six to 12 months. That is the period that is going to form the basis of these proposals for a new EU common standard,” he said.
“Some countries keep the data for longer… But the whole point here is to have a common set of standards so that the security services can use this type of data, which is fundamental, to track down terrorists, and to make sure we can make our countries as safe as they possibly can be.”
However, Mr Hutton reiterated Tony Blair’s comments over the weekend that it was impossible to provide complete protection against determined terrorists.
“If they are prepared to do these sorts of deeds and to take the risks that they are, then it is virtually impossible. I don’t think any security service in the world could tell its people that they can stop every possible attack,” he said.
The cabinet minister rejected calls by the Conservatives for an inquiry into the failure of the security services to prevent Thursday’s attacks, saying: “I really don’t think there is any evidence of complacency, far from it.”
