NEW laws granting security services additional snooping powers suffered a heavy setback yesterday when a government terrorism watchdog said they must be scrapped and rewritten from scratch.
Independent government terrorism legislation reviewer David Anderson QC called for a total overhaul of the approach to intrusive powers used by the authorities to combat terrorism and serious crime.
“The current law is fragmented, obscure, under constant challenge and variable in the protections that it affords the innocent,” he said.
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the difficulties surrounding freedom of expression
Digital ID means the government could track anyone and then limit their speech, movements, finances — and it could get this all wrong, identifying the wrong people for the wrong reasons, as the numerous digital cockups so far demonstrate, warns DYLAN MURPHY


