UK delays 'snooper's charter'

LONDON, England -- The UK government has delayed plans to push through what had been attacked by the British media as a "snooper's charter" to allow officials to demand access to phone and e-mail records.

Members of parliament had been due on Tuesday to debate a draft order that would have enabled seven British government departments, as well as local authorities and other public bodies, access to communications data.

But the UK Home Office said the debate had now been postponed due to "parliamentary procedures." No alternative date has yet been set.

The disclosure came after the Conservative opposition warned that it would be prepared to oppose the draft order when it came to the upper chamber, the House of Lords, if Labour used its majority to push it through the Commons.

With the Liberal Democrats and some independent peers thought to be opposed to the measure, the government could have been defeated in the upper chamber.

The draft order sought to extend the surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which are currently restricted to the police, the intelligence agencies, Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue.

The Government departments which would have been covered under the extended powers include Health, Trade and Industry, Transport, the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The order would also have covered every local council, and would have extended to a range of bodies from fire authorities to the Food Standards Agency.

The UK government said the powers were necessary to prevent serious crime, but had been strongly criticise by civil liberties groups.

The Conservative opposition leader in the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, said the government should use the delay now to re-think its approach.

"This will give the government time to re-think and hopefully to withdraw the most illiberal and intrusive of these measures," he said.

"We support the war on terrorism. We oppose district councils and quangos being given power to survey private communications. Surely even this distressingly authoritarian government can see the difference."

Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth defended the measure, which he said was intended to create a proper statutory framework, setting out the circumstances in which public bodies could access information.