Hereford and South Herefordshire Liberal Democrats

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Sarah Carr Exposes Herefordshire Council misuse of Anti-terrorism Legislation to snoop on local residents

9.01.53am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 27th Aug 2009

Copyright Chris Poole Images 2009

Sarah Carr, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Hereford and South Herefordshire, has today released a letter exposing that Conservative run Herefordshire Council has been using anti-terrorism legislation, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) to snoop on local residents.

Information released by the Council in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Sarah Carr details 16 RIPA applications by Herefordshire Council that have been approved since 2006 covering subjects such as investigating possible benefit fraud, possible under-age sales of alcohol and compliance with no smoking laws.

Sarah Carr said:

"This appears to be a serious misuse of controversial anti-terrorism legislation by the Conservative run Herefordshire Council.

"Whilst issues such benefit fraud and underage drinking are serious problems, questions must be asked as to what grounds the Conservative run Council have for using laws introduced to fight terrorism to conduct surveillance in this way. These draconian measures appear to be highly disproportionate to the types of offences being investigated. And to use these laws for checking up on local residents' smoking habits seems to be way beyond what is reasonable.

"It is appalling that the Labour Government has permitted local authorities to use such a disturbing array of anti-terrorism powers and once again calls into question the government's policies on law and order. The Liberal Democrats are the only party that remain committed to individual privacy, civil liberties and common sense policies in fighting crime such as more police on the beat."

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Previous news story: Sarah Carr meets with Edgar Street Grid Chief (Mon 24th Aug 2009).
Next news story: Sarah Carr speaks out against 'budget airline' style of local government (Wed 2nd Sep 2009).

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