Snooping Bill goes back under the Lords' microscope

The House of Lords has begun a fresh round of debate on amendments to the controversial clause 46 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill.

The proposed amendments mean that it is no longer incumbent upon individuals to prove whether or not they have been in possession of an encryption key (referred to as a burden of proof issue). They also call for senior company directors to be notified if intelligence services demand access to encryption keys.

While today's debate has been welcomed by anti-RIP lobbyists, many claim the Bill still has other unresolved issues. One peer opposing the legislation, Lord John Cope, said the government had so far failed to deliver adequate solutions to a number of technical issues raised by the legislation.

He told silicon.com: "Industry wants to know if every ISP has to have a black box through which all their communications must be channelled and monitored or whether the government will just approach ISPs for material on individuals and groups they suspect. The government has still not committed to technical questions," he said.

Cope added he was uncertain why the UK government continued to push the Bill ahead while other countries were postponing comparable legislation due the complexity of some of the issues.

Fellow opposition member, Lord Strathclyde, said if the outcome to the amendment debate was not satisfactory, the Bill's opponents will continue to lobby the government after the summer break.

He added: "It would be more desirable for the government to move in the right direction than for us to have to defeat them."

Roland Perry, regulatory officer with the London Internet Exchange, said the government was still skirting around the cost issue. He said: "I'm not hopeful that much progress will be made on the cost issue. The government is saying it will only cost £20m over three years. They are playing down the costs."

Lord Cope also claimed the government needed to explain the discrepancy between its cost estimate and the total in the recent British Chambers of Commerce report, which predicted that the bill for monitoring emails will cost ISPs £650m over five years.