Theresa May on Tuesday formally introduced the investigatory powers bill, a new law governing surveillance by UK police and intelligence agencies that has been dubbed a "snooper's charter" by its critics.

The controversial legislation has been examined by three committees of parliamentarians, who together suggested more than 120 changes, leading more than 100 experts to write an open letter suggesting that the introduction of the new law be delayed.

The Home Office decided to stick with its original timetable, however, and insisted the new bill substantially addressed the numerous detailed changes.

One of the most significant proposed alterations came from the influential intelligence and security committee, which oversees MI5, MI6, and GCHQ and is traditionally seen as being friendly to the agencies.

In its report, the committee said a new section should be introduced to the bill to boost privacy protections.

"Overall, the privacy protections are inconsistent and in our view need

strengthening," it said. "We recommend that an additional Part be included in the new legislation to provide universal privacy protections, not just those that apply to

sensitive professions."

So how did the Home Office respond? Apparently by adding the word "privacy" to a section heading.

The new bill does now contain a section headed "general privacy protections" – but it was quickly noted that it is almost identical to a similarly named "general protections" section in the previous draft and neither consolidates all the privacy safeguards in the bill nor contains substantial changes from the previous draft. Slide the bar in this image to compare the two versions: