Nick Clegg: We're restoring hard won British liberties

"Today the Government is publishing a Freedom Bill. A piece of legislation that brings together a raft of measures to restore hard-won British liberties that have been lost in recent years. Like ending the indefinite storage of innocent people's DNA. Reining in stop-and-search powers too easily misused by the police. Properly regulating CCTV to put the breaks on the surveillance state and making sure that local people have a say on CCTV in their area, telling us what they want and don't want. Preventing schools from fingerprinting children without their parents' consent.

These steps, along with a host of others, will help deliver on a promise I made last month: that 2011 will be the year the Coalition Government gives people their freedom back. It follows action already taken to halt ID cards. And to turn off ContactPoint - the central government database containing the personal details of every child in England.

So today's Freedom Bill is an unprecedented piece of legislation to roll back the power of the state. Its sheer breadth should demonstrate that we will leave no stone unturned - from protecting trial by jury; to tackling rogue wheel clampers; to restoring a sense of proportion to vetting and barring, freeing up millions of people working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults from onerous state checks.

We are looking at liberty across the board, at both the controversial and the seemingly mundane. Freedom is back in fashion. While our predecessors took it away, we will give it back."