UK mass surveillance challenged in Europe's highest human rights Court

THE Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights heard Big Brother Watch and others' case against mass surveillance practices by the UK Government. The hearing saw Government lawyers defending bulk surveillance practices and admitting that even the Court's confidential emails could be scooped up by UK intelligence agencies.

The Government admitted that the purpose of bulk surveillance:- "is not to search for the communications of identified targets," but to gather mass data and decide "who should be a target." Government lawyers revealed the UK intelligence agencies' purpose for bulk surveillance powers is to search for "unknown unknowns," a widely ridiculed phrase used by former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to defend the lack of evidence for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2002.

The campaign groups argued that this is unlawful, as it cannot be considered necessary or proportionate in a democratic society and "treats everyone as under suspicion."

The UK Government also admitted to deploying:- "automated rules" and "computerised searches" to sift through billions of intercepted calls, texts, emails and internet records. The candid admission of mass data gathering signals a new approach from the Government, which put explicit bulk surveillance powers into UK law for the 1st time in 2016 via the controversial Investigatory Powers Act.

Questioned by the Court as to the scale of the UK's secret surveillance, Sir James Eadie QC, acting for the Government, responded:- "To the extent that the sting of the question is, have you got lots of data even at the end of the filtering process, the answer to that question is yes; and a jolly good thing too."

Judge Alburquerque asked Eadie if this meant UK intelligence agencies would intercept confidential and legally privileged emails sent by the European Court of Human Rights to colleagues in the UK. Eadie admitted, "it might be caught, because bulk interception is bulk interception; so 1 would not know."

Campaign groups Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Open Rights Group and the computer science expert Dr. Constanze Kurz began the legal challenge in 2013 following revelations of the UK's mass spying by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Documents provided by Mr Snowden revealed that the UK intelligence agency GCHQ was conducting:- "population scale" interception, capturing the communications of millions of innocent people. The mass spying programmes included:- TEMPORA, a bulk data store of all internet traffic; KARMA POLICE, a catalogue including a:- "web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet;" and Black Hole, a repository of over 1 trillion events including:- internet histories, email and instant messenger records, search engine queries and social media activity.

Big Brother Watch and others told the Grand Chamber "the UK's regime puts at risk the very values protected by the Convention that terrorism seeks to undermine."

In September 2018 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK's mass interception programmes breached the European Convention on Human Rights as they lacked adequate safeguards. The landmark judgment marked the Court's 1st ruling on UK mass surveillance since Mr Snowden's revelations. However, the campaign groups argued that the judgment did not go far enough in declaring unlawful the mass surveillance practices, pushing the case up to the Grand Chamber.

The Grand Chamber is expected to deliver a definitive judgment on the compatibility of mass communications surveillance with the European Convention on Human Rights early in 2020.

Director of Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo said:- "This is the last stand in our legal challenge against the UK's secret mass surveillance practices, revealed by Ed Snowden. The rights of millions of citizens to be free from unwarranted state spying hang in the balance. The outcome of this challenge is critical and will not only affect Brits, but will set a precedent across Europe.  This challenge will determine whether human rights frameworks are able to protect democracies from the surveillance creep that recent technological leaps have enabled. The stakes are incredibly high and the Grand Chamber now has a vital opportunity to protect the future of the right to privacy in Europe."

Daniel Carey, Partner at Deighton Pierce Glynn acting as solicitor for Big Brother Watch and others said:- "The Court heard that there is much more that domestic law can and should be doing to protect citizens' privacy in the face of fast expanding surveillance architecture. This hearing represents a hugely significant opportunity to reassert the rule of law in this vital area and I am hopeful the Court will take it."

Businesses in the North West urged to register for Making Tax Digital before August

MORE than 38,000 businesses in the North West, with a turnover above ₤85,000, have signed up to Making Tax Digital (MTD).  HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is now urging the remaining businesses, that are required to sign up in the Region, to do it before the VAT filing deadline next month. Many of the 1.2 million UK businesses affected by the MTD rules, which became law for VAT periods starting on or after 1 April  2019, will be required to submit their 1st quarterly VAT return to HMRC using software by the 7 August 2019. If paying by Direct Debit, these businesses must register by Monday, 29 July 2019. MTD was 1st announced in 2015 and will make it easier for businesses to get their Tax right, reducing Tax lost due to avoidable mistakes.

HMRC's reminder comes as it reveals:-

► At the moment, around 10,000 businesses are registering for MTD every day.

► More than 600,000 businesses have signed up in total with some 400,000 submissions already successfully made using software.

► Businesses in the agriculture sector (such as farmers) have been 1 of the fastest groups to sign up to MTD with 50% already registered

► The financial sector has been 1 of the sloWest to sign up with nearly 75% yet to sign up.

Theresa Middleton, Director of Making Tax Digital, at HMRC, said:- "Now is the time for businesses with an August quarterly filing deadline to sign up and join the hundreds of thousands already experiencing the benefits of MTD. During this 1st year we won't be issuing filing or record keeping penalties to businesses doing their best to comply."

The MTD rules became law for VAT periods starting on or after 1 April 2019 and require VAT registered businesses with Taxable turnover of more than ₤85,000 to keep their VAT records digitally and to submit their VAT return direct from their MTD compatible software. HMRC expects MTD to reduce Tax lost, due to errors, thanks to the improved accuracy that digital records provide and the fact that information is sent directly from software to HMRC. The latest Tax gap figures showed avoidable mistakes cost Taxpayers more than ₤9.9 billion in the 2018/19 Tax year; ₤3 billion attributable to VAT alone.

But many small businesses are worried as this new idea, on paper is good, but the expensive software and also requirement for staff to be trained to use it, has lead to many asking if this will be another reason why many businesses might start to close, as already many small businesses have said that they can not afford it. Add to this the worry of Data Breaches, and fines resulting in them, have sent shivers though the business community as a hole, as most programs that are HMRC competent rely on Cloud technology, as well as being programmed and updated by people outside the UK. What are your views on this?  Please email us your thoughts to:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com.