Snoopers' charter to become law after MPs vote overwhelmingly in favour of new internet surveillance laws

Investigatory Powers Bill passes third reading in the House of Commons - with just 69 votes against

MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Investigatory Powers Bill, voting for the so-called snoopers' charter at its third reading in the House of Commons by 444 votes to 69.

Only the Liberal Democrats - who supported something similar when in government - the Greens' solitary MP and the SNP voted against.

The Bill only needs to pass its final reading in the House of Lords - which is normally a formality - before it becomes law.

The passing of the Bill will enable the government to (legally) ramp up the level of surveillance of ordinary citizens' internet browsing in a bid to identify terrorists and other criminals - as well as investigating less serious crimes.

The Bill was supported by the opposition Labour Party after shadow home office minister Keir Starmer claimed that "constructive engagement" had persuaded the government to make a number of changes to the proposed legislation.

Legal requirements for security software and hardware to have backdoors installed so that law enforcement and security services could tap encrypted devices and encryption were not included in the final draft, voted on last night.

However, internet service providers will be required to start monitoring the activities of their users, and to put in place systems that will enable "internet connection records" to be recorded and handed over to the authorities. Small and medium-sized ISPs have suggested that the extra costs that compliance would necessitate could well put them out of business.

The Metropolitan Police, in a briefing yesterday, claimed that such powers were required because criminals were increasingly resorting to the internet to communicate, rather than phoning and text messaging. The police already have powers to demand from telecom operators suspects phone records, but internet records are complicated by the sheer volume of extraneous information generated just by visiting a single web page.

According to Met Police deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu, the police simply want the communication records - not the communications themselves - so that they can see where a suspect has been online in order to corroborate alibis, as well as backing up complaints.

That might mean, therefore, the police being provided with a record of websites visited, and when, but not what was communicated or bought on an e-commerce website.

Basu claimed that the records would help the police to "protect the vulnerable" and would be deployed in order to corroborate claims of grooming and harassment, as well as in investigations of serious crime, such as terrorism, murder, paedophilia and rape.

End to end encryption, as well as intransigence on the part of websites, services and technology vendors outside of the UK, might also hamper the government's IP Bill web surveillance plans, he admitted.