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Proceeding contribution from Lord West of Spithead (Labour) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 9 October 2008. It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL) and Debate on bill on Counter-Terrorism Bill.


Counter-Terrorism Bill

The noble Baroness raised some interesting points. As was said, this is about information that could be stored in computers on a hard drive or in a digital camera or something like that. It allows one to say, ““I would like to have this document downloaded””. The police are not allowed to take away the equipment—the camera or whatever—but they can ask for a specific document to be downloaded from it. They can take information that is still encrypted, but they cannot ask for the encryption key to break it. If the person refuses, for example, to download a bit of information or to assist the officer in accordance with the Bill, they are obstructing an officer and, as the Bill says, they face up to six months in prison.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
704 c344 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Disclosure of information Databases Codes of practice Crime prevention Administration of justice Arrests Assets Banks Fingerprints Evidence Intelligence services ICT Genetics Documents GCHQ National security Northern Ireland Police Powers Terrorism Training Right of search Torture Anti-terrorism control orders Freezing of assets
Legislation
Counter-terrorism Bill 2007-08
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk