Data Communications web snooping charter 'not going to happen', says Nick Clegg

'We have a commitment to end the storage of internet information' says deputy PM

Deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said that the government's proposed Communications Data Bill will not go ahead while his party remains in power.

"What people have dubbed the snooper's charter", said Nick Clegg on his weekly "Call Clegg" phone-in on LBC 97.3 radio, is "not going to happen".

While Downing Street still maintains that discussions will continue to "the next steps" of the Bill, Clegg seemed to signal he was aiming to kibosh the legislation.

""We all committed ourselves at the beginning of this coalition to learn the lessons from the past, when Labour overdid it, trying to constantly keep tabs on everyone. We have a commitment in this Coalition Agreement to end the storage of internet information unless there is a very good reason to do so," said Clegg.

Clegg described the Bill as a government aim to "pass a law which means there will be a record kept of every website you visit, who you communicate with on social media sites, that's not going to happen."

Clegg said that a "treasure trove" of data on every internet user in the country did not appear to be something the people backed, and said there were doubts that such a thing was even technically feasible.

The first draft of the Bill was thrown out by a joint committee of MPs and peers in December 2012, but a revised version is expected to be brought up in the Queen's speech on 8 May.

An earlier version of the Bill was initially introduced in 2008, but also defeated following a protracted and bitter battle. Both Bills are UK implementations of the European Union's Data Retention Directive of 2006 - which means that it will be back in some form in the future.