Secrecy for us, not you

News in Brief by PN

The queen’s speech, delivered on 9 May, revealed details of the government’s plan to give the police and security services access to every UK phone call, email and text message, without requiring a warrant.
The Justice and Security bill, announced in the same speech, will allow ministers to declare evidence in civil trials to be too sensitive to be made public, and only to be revealed in secret court sessions, secret even from the litigant and their lawyers. Such secret evidence may involve government wrongdoing. See the Coalition Against Secret Evidence.