Abstract

Background

Britain’s laws on surveillance, interception of communications and other covert activities of the security and intelligence services are widely regarded as unsatisfactory and inadequate. The government has published a draft Investigatory Powers bill which aims to rectify this, by placing all the powers deemed necessary by the state under one statute. The draft bill has been widely discussed, and is currently being scrutinised by a Joint Committee of the Houses of Commons and Lords. Given the scope and extent of the legislation, and the torrent of comment that it has already attracted, it would be impossible to encompass all aspects of the draft bill in a single day, so we have selected five areas for consideration, in the hope that the resulting discussion can usefully be fed back into public debate and Parliamentary scrutiny of the legislation.

• 09:30 Registration and coffee
• 09:50: Welcome and introduction

• Chair: David Runciman
• Speakers: Conor Gearty and Judith Townend

11:30 COFFEE

• Chair: John Naughton
• Speakers: Richard Clayton, Lorna Woods and Ray Corrigan

13:00-13:45 LUNCH

• Chair: Nóra Ní Loideain
• Speakers: Ross Anderson and Ian Walden

15:15: TEA

• Chair: David Erdos
• Speakers: David Vincent, Nóra Ní Loideain & Andrew Murray

• Chair: Julia Powles
• Speakers: Sinead Connolly, Julian Huppert and Adrian Kennard

• Speakers: David Runciman, Julian Huppert and John Naughton

The symposium is open to all, but if you plan on attending please register because we need to estimate numbers for catering purposes.