Phone and e-mail 'snoopers' charter' is watered down

David Blunkett has retreated from moves to givea wide range of public bodies access to telephone, internet and e-mail records.

The Home Secretary admitted that he had blundered by drawing up plans last summer for what soon became known as a "snoopers' charter". The proposals, authorising Whitehall departments and local councils to access private information, have been watered down after opposition from civil liberties groups and computer professionals.

Mr Blunkett has still given approval for a series of organisations, including town halls, to have access to some communications records. Under the new proposals, five organisations with responsibility for "the investigation of serious crime, protection of national security or provision of emergency services" would for the first time have automatic access to private records.

Fire authorities, the ambulance service, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary and the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency would be able to demand details of telephone calls and e-mails sent and received. They would also be able to obtain information about the location of mobile phone users.

In addition, 21 organisations would be able to obtain more limited information, such as the names and addresses of telephone users and internet subscribers. The groups include trading standards officers in councils, fraud investigators in the Department for Work and Pensions, the Immigration Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Royal Mail. Parish and community councils, which were included on the original list, have been omitted.

The right to access would be limited to designated individuals within the organisations and all applications would have to follow rules to protect against abuse. All demands would be subject to the oversight of Sir Swinton Thomas, the Interception of Communications Commissioner.

Mr Blunkett said that among those who had criticised his original proposals was his son Hugh, a computer programmer. In a foreword to yesterday's Home Office consultative document, he said: "I take concerns about intrusion into privacy very seriously. I value my own privacy and would be as concerned as everyone else if I thought my mobile phone or other communications data could be easily available to an army of officials."

He added: "Our preferred option is to reduce drastically the number of public authorities allowed to access the full range of communications data and to apply a range of additional restrictions and safeguards to the remainder."

But a spokesman for Privacy International, a human rights group, said: "The Government has conceded almost nothing. The number of government agencies having access to this sensitive infor- mation has hardly been reduced. And the consultation paper offers no guarantee that the list will not be indefinitely extended."

John Wadham, the director of Liberty, said: "The original snoopers' charter proposals were appallingly excessive. We welcome much of the government plan to step back from them." But he called for a judge, as "the only truly independent safeguard", to be given oversight of the proposals.

Jeremy Beale, the head of e-business at the Confederation of British Industry, said: "The Home Office is now showing a genuine commitment to engaging with industry concerns. This appears to be a more business-friendly approach to data protection that tries to avoid loading firms with excessive burdens."

Access all areas - how the law will work

1. The police, Mi5, Mi6, GCHQ, and Customs & Excise can apply to the Home Secretary to: tap phone calls; intercept e-mails; and intercept post.

2. Ambulance services, fire authorities, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, the Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary and the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency can obtain: itemised phone bills, details of calls from mobiles and location of mobile caller when made; records of e-mails, identity of recipients, and names of websites accessed; addresses on mail.

3. Twenty-one other public authorities can apply for access to "necessary and proportionate" details: the times and duration of calls, names and addresses of phone subscribers; information on internet subscribers and subscribers' methods of payment, and information about postal forwarding services and records of postal deliveries.