Protection of Freedoms Bill fails to measure up to rhetoric

14 February 2011

The Law Society is disappointed that the newly published Protection of Freedoms Bill does not take a more comprehensive view of freedom.

Law Society President Linda Lee says:"While the aim of scaling back state powers and reversing what has been seen as the widespread erosion of civil liberties in recent years is laudable the Bill as a whole fails to measure up to the Government's grand rhetoric. Proposals for CCTV regulation are limited to local authorities and the police and, in relation to legislation like the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the reforms represent tinkering rather than the wholesale review and revision that is needed."/

"We're very glad to see changes that make stop and search powers more specific and the Scottish model of DNA retention adopted, but the Society has grave doubts that the Bill will be seen as the turning point in the growth of the surveillance society."

The Bill is also being introduced against the backdrop of vicious cuts in legal aid. Expressing disappointment at lack of ambition in the new legislation Linda Lee says:"The Bill primarily only deals with personal liberty, for example; to not be stopped and searched indiscriminately. Freedom is also about enabling people, yet cuts to legal aid will do precisely the opposite. We will be examining this Bill in great detail but also in context.

"In particular, the publication of the Bill has been heralded as a 'sea change' in the Government approach of tradition British liberties, but this assertion is not borne out across all its policies. While the Government maybe be 'restoring liberties' through this Bill, it is simultaneously reducing access to justice through the proposed cuts to legal aid. Active promotion and enforcement of rights is as important to liberty as the absence of constraints on freedom."

The Law Society is collaborating with the BCS, Chartered Institute for IT, the London School of Economics Policy Engagement Network and others including the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Leeds, to examine how expertise on cross-cutting socio-technical and legal issues can be fed into the policy making process in order to achieve better outcomes in legislation of this kind. We expect to issue a joint statement on this aspect of the Freedom Bill in due course.

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