Internet surveillance programme 'could cost £2bn'
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 12:00 AM
By Emmeline Saunders
The government could spend an "eye-watering" £2 billion on monitoring communication between citizens.
Officials will be able to access details of every click of the mouse made by each citizen, in plans that will concern opponents to a growing 'Big Brother' state.
The Liberal Democrats put the cost of logging communications data at £55.61 million in 2009/10, but the government admitted the controversial Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) would cost £2 billion over the next decade.
The IMP will hold records on phone calls and emails - such as who they were from and to, the time they were made and the location they were sent from - but not private content.
Police, security services and state authorities can then request access to this information as part of investigations.
The government's existing surveillance scheme costs an average £11 million a year, over a five-year period. This pays for phone companies and service providers to keep information about customers.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne described the new figure as "an eye-watering escalation of cost" and highlighted concerns about the level of government snooping.
"In an era of tough spending choices, it cannot be a justified response to the problems we face as a country to lavish millions of pounds a year on state spying," he said.
"The increase in money spent on tapping phones and emails is all the more baffling when Britain is still one of the few countries not to allow intercept evidence in court, even in terrorist cases."
A spokesman for the Home Office said: "Communications data is crucial to the fight against crime and keeping people safe."
The programme is not expected to be introduced in parliament until after the general election.
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