Liberal Democrats defending our liberties

The Liberal Democrats have published their Freedom Bill, detailing how the party plans to roll back the authoritarian laws passed by both Labour and Conservative governments which have undermined civil liberties.

The legislation is the first time a major political party has collated all of the laws which have undermined civil liberties into one Bill, so that they can be easily repealed.

The 20 measures contained in the draft legislation will:

Cut the maximum pre-charge detention period from 28 to 14 days

Abolish the veto in the Freedom of Information Act that allows ministers to keep information secret

Scrap the ID card scheme

Remove all innocent people from the DNA database, except for those tried for a violent or sexual offence

Stop councils and others snooping by restricting the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to serious and terrorist offences

Regulate CCTV to protect privacy following a Royal Commission on the use of cameras

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"With one small change after another over the last 20 years, the cumulative loss of civil liberties is huge.

"The Government has presided over the slow death by a thousand cuts of our hard-won British freedoms.

"Our forebears who fought so hard to establish our rights under the law would be shocked at what we have lost.

"The Freedom Bill we are publishing today will repeal 20 years of attacks on our civil liberties from both Labour and Tory governments."