The Government accepted four of Labour’s demands on the Investigatory Powers Bill this evening as it returned to the Commons. 

The concessions included:

An overarching privacy clause to ensure that privacy is at the heart of the Bill;

A historic commitment that trade union activities cannot be considered sufficient reason for investigatory powers to be used;

Assurances that the ‘double lock’ process includes power for Judicial Commissioners to scrutinise the decision to issue a warrant, not just the process.

These amendments are further to a review of the operational case for bulk powers, secured by Labour two weeks ago and to be led by David Anderson, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorist Legislation. 

Labour and the Government today agreed the terms of reference for the review and Anderson will consider the necessity of the powers, not only use. It will take place over the summer and will inform debate in the House of Lords.

Labour will continue to continue to push the Government on three further areas of concerns - protections for sensitive professions, a higher threshold for accessing Internet Connection Records and limiting the use of NHS records. 

Andy Burnham MP, speaking about the trade union concession, said: 

“This historic move will improve the governance of our country.

“There is clear evidence that monitoring was used for unjustified political and commercial reasons, breaching privacy and basic human rights. The blacklisting of construction workers was used to vet people and deny them work.

“We need to understand how covertly-gained police information came into the hands of the shady organisation compiling the blacklist. This is yet another scandal from our country’s past that the public have a right to know about.”

Keir Starmer MP said:

"These concessions are a really significant step forward. Labour have now won agreement for an independent review of bulk powers and that privacy will be absolutely central to the Bill. We have also ensured there is a robust and effective double-lock in place and have gained hard-fought and long-overdue protections for legitimate trade union activity.

"This is still far from a perfect Bill and the Government need to show further movement in tomorrow’s debate. But today's progress will help build trust and Labour will keep pushing the Government to resolve remaining concerns with this Bill.”