Campaigners said the government's proposals for identity cards altered the relationship between the citizen and the state, and that it was inevitable that minorities (especially racial minorities) would suffer discrimination as a result.
Source: Liberty's Evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on the Government's Identity Card Proposals, Liberty (020 7403 3888)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A new book examined the extent to which the Human Rights Act 1998 had strengthened human rights, and its impact on the legal system.
Source: Jeffrey Jowell and Jonathan Cooper (eds.), Delivering Rights: How the Human Rights Act is working and for whom, Hart Publishing (01865 245533)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Nov
The Home Secretary said that he favoured a compulsory national identity card system to help fight crime, and that he was hoping to persuade his Cabinet colleagues to include proposals in the Queen's Speech in the autumn of 2003.
Source: The Guardian, 22 September 2003
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
The government published a draft order for the regulation of phone and internet records used to fight crime. It said it had radically revised its original proposals, made in 2002, following public concern over the extent of access afforded to public bodies. It said the new measures clearly restricted who in public authorities could access data, and the type of information available to them. The government also published a draft order regulating the use of covert surveillance and human intelligence sources (informants and undercover officers) by a range of public authorities.
Source: The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data) Order 2003, Draft Statutory Instrument, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources) Order 2003, Draft Statutory Instrument, Home Office, TSO | Press release 12 September 2003, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Communications data draft order | Explanatory notes (pdf) | Covert human intelligence sources draft order | Home Office press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
A joint committee of MPs and peers said that there were eight different aspects of the Criminal Justice Bill which increased the risk of violations of human rights. These included the relaxation of the rule against double jeopardy; new presumptions against granting bail in certain cases; extended powers to take and retain fingerprints and non-intimate samples; and admissibility of evidence of bad character, including previous convictions.
Source: Criminal Justice Bill: Further Report, Eleventh Report (Session 2002-03), HL 118 and HC 724, Joint Committee on Human Rights (House of Lords and House of Commons), TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Text of Bill | First Committee Report
Date: 2003-Jun
The government tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, allowing police officers to take fingerprints and DNA samples from arrested persons detained at police stations (rather than having to wait until after a suspect has been charged). Human rights campaigners accused the government of seeking to create a national DNA and fingerprint database by stealth.
Source: Press release 27.3.03, Home Office (0870 000 1585) | Press release 27.3.03, Liberty (020 7403 3888)
Links: HO press release | Liberty press release
Date: 2003-Mar
The government began consultation on proposed extensions to the list of public authorities able to gain access to telephone and internet records on individual citizens. It said its preferred approach was to 'restrict significantly' the size of the list, following widespread opposition to proposals originally put to Parliament in the summer of 2002. Human rights campaigners welcomed the government's retreat, but called for tougher safeguards.
Source: Access to Communications Data: Respecting privacy and protecting the public from crime, Home Office (0870 000 1585) | Press release 11.3.03, Liberty (020 7403 3888)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | HO press release | Liberty press release | Information Commissioner press release
Date: 2003-Mar
The Lord Chief Justice said: 'The informed view is that making the European Convention part of [the United Kingdom's] domestic law has proved to be a great success'.
Source: Speech by Lord Woolf, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, on the occasion of the opening of the judicial year at the European Court of Human Rights, 23.1.03
Links: Text of speech
Date: 2003-Jan
The new information commissioner reportedly expressed concern at the possibility of an entitlement card scheme which was used for more than the basic purpose of establishing identity and gaining access to public services. He said any scheme would increase identity theft while failing to tackle fraud.
Source: The Guardian, 8.1.03
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jan