We’re only a few weeks away from the Queen’s Speech, yet there’s one significant piece of legislation from this session which has yet to be resolved. It has already caused one big row, and will certainly cause another one when it is published. The Snooper’s Charter, better known to the ministers as the Communications Data Bill, was supposed to be published before this session ended, but it’s looking like the government is going to have to re-announce it in the Queen’s Speech instead.
Theresa May told the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill in October 2012 that ‘I am expecting it to come in to this session’, and those involved in the discussions on both the political and lobbying side about the re-draft also still expect to get a proposal from the Home Office before prorogation. But I understand that the new legislation is now unlikely to be published before the Queen’s Speech.
Whenever it is published – and the delay is really a symptom of the struggle the Home Office is having to satisfy all groups involved in the negotiations – the Bill presents a very big awkward problem: two awkward problems, in fact.
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