Snoopers' Charter data retention on hold, says Home Office

The Home Office reportedly admitted its plans for the mass collection of data from Britons were on hold on Friday, after a recent ruling from the European Court of Justice.

Under the Investigatory Powers Act - better known as the Snoopers’ Charter - the government had planned to collect data on the internet habits of practically everybody in the United Kingdom.

However, technology news website Ars Technica reported that a Home Office spokesperson admitted the plans were on hiatus after the European Court of Justice found the data retention policies were unlawful in all cases, apart from the investigation of serious crime.

“The European Court of Justice handed down a judgment relating to the UK’s communications data regime in December,” the unnamed spokesperson told Ars Technica.

“The matter must now be considered by the domestic courts and the consultation on the communications data code of practice has been deferred until this has taken place.”

It had been noted that the draft codes of practice for the Act, released on Thursday in preparation for a six-week public consultation, no longer contained the Home Office’s communications data code.

The draft Home Office code, released with the rest of the drafts in March last year, had caused much consternation among privacy advocates.

In December, when the ECJ found the UK’s data retention powers were unlawful, the government said at the time that it had workaround “contingency plans” to allow the law to proceed.

It was unclear on Friday what those contingency plans were, given the lack of codes in the public consultation documents.