Liberal Democrats demand urgent investigation into spy law use

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 7th Jul 2008

Local Liberal Democrats have demanded that Haringey Council urgently investigates the way it uses controversial surveillance laws to spy on local residents.

Freedom of information requests by the Liberal Democrats revealed that the Regulatory of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), designed to combat terrorism and catch serious criminals, has been used 85 times since 2001.

Local Liberal Democrats have now called on Haringey Council's 'watchdog' committee to urgently investigate Haringey Council's use of RIPA legislation.

Cllr Jonathan Bloch (Muswell Hill), who has written to the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, commented:

"For too long our civil liberties have been pushed to the bottom of the priority list. Residents must be made aware of why Haringey Council has used anti-terror legislation to tackle low level criminality. We need to challenge Haringey's and the Government's Big Brother attitude to ensure that this surveillance society does not degrade our civil liberties further."