Brussels, 20/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The High Court in London ruled on Friday 17 July that the emergency law on the retention of telecoms data introduced in 2014 by the former Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the wake of the annulment of the European directive on the same matter is illegal and incompatible with the right to privacy.
The High Court ruled that certain provisions of the 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (Dripa) were incompatible with Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The UK government has announced that it intends to lodge an appeal.
The ruling contains two major criticisms relating to metadata retained by operators for a period of twelve months, states the specialist NextINpact site. Dripa provisions, firstly, do not lay down clear and precise rules to ensure that retention of and access to the data relate only to serious crime. Secondly, Dripa does not provide for independent court or judicial scrutiny to ensure that only data deemed strictly necessary is examined. (Solenn Paulic)