| answer text |
<p>The retention of, and ability to access, communications data is an essential tool
for intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The Government is committed to ensuring
that our investigatory powers legislation is compliant with EU law.</p><p>The Government
gave careful consideration to judgments by the European Court of Justice and the domestic
Courts, implementing changes to UK law to ensure our communications data regime was
compliant, while still ensuring our intelligence and law enforcement agencies have
the powers they need to solve crimes, catch child sexual offenders and protect the
public.</p><p>After consulting widely on our proposed changes and following scrutiny
by both Houses of Parliament, the Government passed the Data Retention and Acquisition
Regulations in October 2018 which introduced a serious crime threshold for acquiring
events communications data.</p><p>In deciding on the definition of serious crime in
the context of communications data, the Government fully considered the intrusiveness
of the power.</p><p>This approach is consistent with EU case law, which states that
the offence must be serious to justify a serious level of intrusion involved in accessing
communications data. The Government’s approach reflects this level of intrusion. Events
data is more intrusive than entity data and therefore a higher threshold must apply,
but it is not as intrusive as interception powers, which can only be acquired if the
definition of seriousness set out at section 263 of the Investigatory Powers Act is
met. <br>The approach taken by the Regulations seeks to reflect the fact the level
of intrusion will vary depending on the data sought and the circumstances of the case
while also establishing a clear bar below which the acquisition of the more intrusive
communications data is prohibited.</p>
|
|
