U.K. Home Office Tues. withdrew controversial legislation aimed a...

allows police, intelligence agencies and customs, excise and tax officials to serve so-called RIP s22 notices ordering communications service providers to divulge personal data about their customers. Draft order, which was set for debate in House of Commons next week, not only would have permitted various govt. departments -- such as health, environment, trade & ministry, and work & pensions -- to access private telecommunications data, but also would have granted access to local councils, national health service agencies in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and various other bodies. Draft law provoked firestorm of protest. In June 18 statement, Home Secretary David Blunkett acknowledged widespread concern about proposal: “It’s clear that whilst we want to provide greater security, clarity and regulation to activities that already go on, our plans have been understood as having the opposite effect.” Therefore, he said, it “makes sense to withdraw the current proposals to allow calmer and lengthy public discussion before we bring forward new plans in this field.” That discussion will take place over summer, Blunkett said. News brought sigh of relief from Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), U.K. think tank for Internet policy. “These proposals were poorly considered, poorly justified and over the past week have been condemned by almost everyone outside of Whitehall,” said Ian Brown, FIPR’s new dir. “The Home Office must now tear them up and start again from first principles.” While everyone wants to see wrongdoing investigated, Brown said, handing out investigatory powers to “every bureaucrat in the land” isn’t compatible with “living in a free society.”