Retaining communications data to cost taxpayers £46m

The government will know where you are when you text

The government will have to pay ISPs more than £46m to store communications information as part of the UK’s implementation of the European directive on data retention.

The Home Office has published the outcome of its consultation on the final phase of the directive, which aims to retain “data generated through electronic communications or public communications networks” to assist the authorities in investigating crimes.

The controversial proposals would mean ISPs and telecoms companies storing data that defines the “who, when and where” of electronic communications such as email, mobile phone calls and text messages – but not their content. So, for example, the data would reveal who sent a text message, from what phone, and their physical location at the time – information that can be vital for criminal investigations - but not the content of the message. Data would be stored for 12 months.

The government first introduced legislation on retention of such data under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers 2000 Act, under which ISPs have voluntarily stored certain data for use by police, intelligence agencies and local authorities. The legislation has proved particularly controversial after some councils were revealed to be using the powers to spy on citizens’ day-to-day activities, such as recycling.

The charges paid to ISPs will be introduced to pay for the mandatory retention of data.

The £46m cost is made up of a one-off charge of £30.35m for the “design, development and installation” of systems to store data, plus £2.21m per year in running costs for eight years.

The Home Office welcomed the positive response to its consultation from industry.

“It is evident there is a great appreciation within the industry of how important communications data is in supporting law enforcement to undertake their lawful activities to investigate, detect and prosecute crime and protect the public, and the responses have indicated broad support for the draft regulations,” said the official response to the consultation.

The government is separately considering plans for a central database containing all communications data including internet browsing habits and use of social networking sites. A further consultation is planned on the subject this year.