UK Home Secretary Theresa May said that it is a matter of national security that the police should have powers to force Internet companies to provide details on suspects' activity on-line.

MOSCOW, November 23 (Sputnik) — It is a matter of national security that the police should have powers to force Internet companies to provide details on suspects' activity on-line, UK Home Secretary Theresa May has said.

"It is a matter of national security and we must keep on making the case for the Communications Data Bill until we get the changes we need," May was quoted as saying by The Daily Mail on Saturday.

She added that the Bill was a step in the right direction toward "bridging the overall communications data capability gap", with further changes to legislation still needed to be made.

According to the home secretary's proposal, Internet service providers in the country will be obliged to assist law enforcement authorities in tracking suspicious individuals by retaining information linking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to individual users.

May said that the initiative would boost UK's national security but complained that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was blocking further steps.

According to the newspaper, Clegg's aide said that the deputy prime minister supported the IP address move but was against allowing the security services to access information of every website that a suspect visited or their communication on social media.