Pressure group launches campaign to stop ‘evasive and duplicitous’ government bill going through the courts

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Open Rights Group (ORG) is taking the government to court to try to block the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers (Drip) bill, which was rushed through parliament on Tuesday.



The bill cleared Commons, despite 56 MPs opposing the deal between the three main parties.

The ORG believes that it can stop the bill coming into force, on the basis that it countermands a European court ruling that blanket data retention is unlawful and violates the right to privacy, breaching human rights.

Jim Killock, director of the ORG, said: “The government has ignored a court judgment, ridden roughshod over our parliamentary processes and denied the public the debate they deserve. But people do care about their privacy and they do care about government stitch-ups.

“Blanket data retention is unlawful and we will fight against this legislation. Our message to Theresa May is: see you in court,” he said.

The ORG believes that Drip breaches the European convention on human rights, the European charter of fundamental rights and the UK’s human rights Act.

'Powers and capabilities that exist today'

The home secretary, Theresa May, said that Drip was needed to put into law “powers and capabilities that exist today” that were hindered by the European court of justice ruling in April that said that blanket data retention is unlawful and violates the right to privacy.

A group of senior academics labelled Drip as "a serious expansion of the British surveillance state” that is in potential breach of European law, in an open letter to the full House of Commons prior to the bill being passed.

"If we delay we face the appalling prospect police operations will go dark, that trails will go cold, that terrorist plots will go undetected,” May warned. "If that happens, innocent lives may be lost.”

'Democratic banditry resonant of a rogue state'

But the Labour MP Tom Watson labelled the passing of the bill as “democratic banditry resonant of a rogue state", saying "parliament has been insulted.”

The ORG is meeting with lawyers to work out the best way to take the government to court, but is open to working with any other group that is willing to help.

It is putting out a call for members to help support the fight against Drip, pushing its participation in the defeat of the "snoopers' charter" and Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) as evidence of what can be accomplished.

• UK’s Drip law: sceptical, misleading and an affront to democracy