Emergency legislation enabling the police to continue to be able to access communications companies' records of phone and internet use has cleared Parliament and is set to become law.
Peers approved the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill after two consecutive days of debate.
It had already won MPs' backing.
Ministers said it needed to be rushed through to maintain the state's existing powers, after a European Court of Justice ruling in April.
Internet entrepreneur and independent crossbench peer Baroness Lane-Fox had said: "It makes me very nervous that bills that require such technical expertise are given so little time."
And Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former head of the civil service, said it "beggars belief" that the government could not have introduced the bill weeks ago.
But Home Secretary Theresa May had said: "If we delay we face the appalling prospect police operations will go dark, that trails will go cold, that terrorist plots will go undetected.
BBC News - Parliament passes emergency Data Retention Bill
Well hidden behind other news that one, well timed you might say.
So they had to pass it because they would be in breach of EU law - no wonder this government wants to 'renegotiate' which laws it picks and chooses to obey - though unlikely to be for the benefit of Joe public, but so it can continue to spy on it's citizens and chip away at the freedoms we once used to have.
Peers approved the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill after two consecutive days of debate.
It had already won MPs' backing.
Ministers said it needed to be rushed through to maintain the state's existing powers, after a European Court of Justice ruling in April.
Internet entrepreneur and independent crossbench peer Baroness Lane-Fox had said: "It makes me very nervous that bills that require such technical expertise are given so little time."
And Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former head of the civil service, said it "beggars belief" that the government could not have introduced the bill weeks ago.
But Home Secretary Theresa May had said: "If we delay we face the appalling prospect police operations will go dark, that trails will go cold, that terrorist plots will go undetected.
BBC News - Parliament passes emergency Data Retention Bill
Well hidden behind other news that one, well timed you might say.
So they had to pass it because they would be in breach of EU law - no wonder this government wants to 'renegotiate' which laws it picks and chooses to obey - though unlikely to be for the benefit of Joe public, but so it can continue to spy on it's citizens and chip away at the freedoms we once used to have.
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