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Tom Brake: Protection of Freedoms Act landmark achievement in fight for civil liberties

Tue, 01 May 2012

A landmark move to roll back Labour’s surveillance state has today become law.

The Protection of Freedoms Act will:

  • stop councils snooping
  • end the storage of DNA of innocent people
  • reduce the bureaucracy of CRB checks
  • end 28-day detention
  • stop schools deciding on their own to take fingerprints of children
  • Make stalking a criminal offence
  • End wheel clamping on private land
  • Delete historical convictions for men who have had consensual gay sex with someone who was over 16
Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for this piece of legislation, proposing a “Freedom Bill” more than four years ago when Nick Clegg was the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman.

Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Policy Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equality, Tom Brake said:
“This is a milestone in the fight to claw back our civil liberties. Under the Labour government, our civil liberties were steadily eroded by an increasingly over-bearing security state.

“Liberal Democrats have done the right thing to clear up Labour’s mess by ending these shameful practices with the Protection of Freedoms Act.

“The Coalition Government has already scrapped ID cards and destroyed the National Identity Register and is now making another leap forward with this Act to end Labour’s surveillance state.

“The Act stops councils snooping, ends the storage of the DNA of innocent people, reduces the bureaucracy of CRB checks, curtails 28-day detention without charge and bans schools from taking children’s fingerprints without parental permission.”

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