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Home Office RIPA Consultation – My Response
I have submitted the following in response to the Home Office consultation entitled: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating orders and codes of practice. The consultation ran for twelve weeks to the 10th of July 2009. Should Councils be Allowed To Snoop? Should councils conduct covert investigations which are regulated under the provisions described […]
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RIPA – Regulating Councils’ Spying
On Tuesday the 10th of February 2009 I attended a Westminster Briefing event on The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). The meeting was addressed by: Sir Christopher Rose – Chief Surveillance Commissioner John Peerless, Head of Brighton & Hove Trading Standards and a member of the Management Committee of the National Anti-Fraud Network Councillor […]
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RIPA Powers Review – Speech
I attended the Strategy & Resources Scrutiny Committee, of Cambridge City Council, at 17.00 on Monday the 1st of September. Members of the public can speak at these meetings if they arrange to do so beforehand. I spoke on the subject of the internal review of the Council’s use of powers under the Regulation of […]
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Review of RIPA Powers – Cambridge City Council
Below are excerpts from an email which I sent to selected councillors in advance of them receiving the report of an internal review into Cambridge City Council’s use of its powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Cllrs Nimmo-Smith, Ward and Herbert, Cambridge City Council’s internal review of the Council’s use of powers under […]
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Part 3 of RIPA – A Step Towards Lawlessness
I wrote the below letter to my MP because I oppose laws which potentially criminalise vast swathes of people, leaving open the possibility for the Police to selectively enforce the law. A society where everybody routinely breaks, or is unable to comply with the law and the state enforces the law arbitrarily is in my […]
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Cambridge MP Candidates on Edward Snowden
At a hustings event in Cambridge organised by Amnesty International I asked those candidates present for their views on Edward Snowden. My question Should the UK offer Edward Snowden Asylum A medal A fair trial? Julian Huppert I think he should be offered asylum. I think it was an astonishing thing that he did. It […]
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Secret Council Experiment Finds Eyes in the Night Displace Dog Poo in Cambridge
At Cambridge City Council’s full council meeting on the 3rd of April 2014 the executive councillor for bins and dog poo, Cllr Swanson, revealed the existence of a secret experiment she has been running. The experiment, which she had not told any of her fellow councillors about, and the existence of which had been kept […]
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Police and Crime Commissioner Bright on Spying on Student Unions
At the session of the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday the 26th of November 2013 Cambridge MP Julian Huppert asked Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner Graham Bright about the police spying on students unions. This follows a Guardian article: Police tried to spy on Cambridge students, secret footage shows based on footage taken by […]
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Council Spooks Deployed Against Boaters
Cambridge City Council has reportedly used tactics one might expect to see in an episode of Spooks, or used in serious criminal investigations, to probe the living arrangements of those living on boats moored in the city. Amy Tillson, who lives on a boat on the river, and who represents boaters at meetings with the […]
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Cambridge City Council Covert CCTV Deployed In Someone’s Home
A report on Cambridge City Council’s use of covert surveillance is to be taken to the council’s Strategy and Resources Committee on Monday the 15th of October at 17.00 in the Guildhall. The key message from the report is simply: [The council] has not authorised the use of RIPA powers in the period covered by […]