mr president one of the issues that concerns a number of my constituents in london is the massive erosion of civil liberties that we have seen in britain under the labour government since nineteen ninety-seven
what concerns them even more is when i tell them about the massive erosion of civil liberties arising at the eu level
we have seen a number of treaties such as the prüm treaty that have caused great concern
fortunately a recent ruling by the ecj forced the british government to hand back the data and profiles of people who were proven innocent when the government wanted to keep hold of them
however the decision by the british government to only remove the profiles of innocent people after at least six years shows that it has scant regard for our freedoms
the decision highlights that in britain innocent until proven guilty is treated as a dismissible sound bite rather than as a fundamental precept of our society
it is bad enough that british police forces have access to this large amount of data and personal information but other european governments will be able to access it too
the prüm treaty was forced into european law without proper democratic scrutiny
it was thought that over three point five million people could now have their personal information flung around the eu
this will fill few people with confidence
