UK: HMG boosts its spending on traffic data retention

[zdnet] The Home Office's financial support for data retention by service providers has passed the £10m per year mark.

Crime and policing minister David Hanson provided the figure on 9 June in response to a parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Willie Rennie.

Hanson said his department does not monitor internet traffic itself, but does sponsor systems that help communications service providers store data from emails and internet traffic. They have retained these voluntarily since 2004 under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act (ATCSA), and have been required to so since 2007 under the EU Data Retention Directive (EUDRD).

Home Office support for the activity increased from £84,582 in 2004-05 to £10.2m in 2008-09. It had a strong momentum under the ATCSA until last year, when spending in the sector fell from £5.7m to £3.6m; but over the past two years there has been a strong growth in spending on the EUDRD, from zero to £6.6m.

Rennie told GC News that he asked the question as part of an effort to assess the effectiveness of the government's spending on the issue.

Gov't boosts spending on web monitoring