Open Rights Group latest Snooper's Charter press release:
‘Snoopers’ Charter’ could hit police forces with £1 billion bill Proposals to collect the internet connection records (ICRs) of every UK citizen could cost more than £1 billion. These costs, which would fall to the Home Office, could be the equivalent cost of employing 3,000 full-time police officers at a time of officer cuts. This estimate of the UK bill is based on the cost of a new, parallel scheme for ICR retention in Denmark, which has now been dropped on costs grounds. Campaigners from the Don’t Spy On Us coalition are calling for the UK government to come clean on the real costs and produce an independent figure for the new retention bill. Denmark shelves ICRs The Danish Government recently shelved similar proposals to monitor Danish citizens’ web browsing history, after it was confirmed that it would cost DKK 1bn (approx £105 million) to implement the scheme. This figure was for equipment investment alone and did not include annual operation costs to retain the records. [1] Ernst & Young were commissioned by the Danish government to look into industry concerns over the costs of collecting ICRs. Their findings supported industry claims. Based on these findings, the cost of implementing ICRs in the UK could be more than a billion pounds. The UK population (64.1 million) is more than eleven times’ Denmark’s (5.6 million). ISPs’ concerns The Home Office has budgeted £174 million over ten years’ to reimburse Internet Service Providers for collecting, retaining and storing ICRs. Many ISPs have disputed these costs. In December, the President of BT Security, Mark Hughes told the Joint Committee into the Investigatory Powers Bill that the allocated £174 million would cover BT's costs alone. In the same session, Director of Operations at Virgin Media, Hugh Woolford, said that he expected their costs to be tens of millions of pounds. [2] Each ISP would have to implement their own system for collecting ICRs, which are currently not generated for business purposes. Quotes Lord Paddick, Liberal Democrat spokesman on Home Affairs in the House of Lords and former Deputy Assistant Commissioner at New Scotland Yard: “This highly controversial plan to record everything that all of us do on the Internet was already facing serious problems. It is unclear that it is even possible, given the quantity of data involved or how much use it would really be to the police. Sensitive personal information that could reveal everything about our lives would be vulnerable to theft by hackers, thieves, blackmailers and hostile foreign governments. Now that we have a professional estimate that it would cost well over £1 billion in set-up costs alone and could be easily circumvented by criminals for just a few pounds a week, apart from anything else, this represents appallingly bad value for money. Speaking as a former senior police officer, we need a much more reasonable and proportionate response and then spend the remaining money on more community policing.” Eric King, Director of Don’t Spy on Us: "The Government is trying to force Internet Service Providers to collect all of our internet connection records but refuses to listen when they express concerns about the cost and feasibility of their proposals. As in Denmark, the Government should commission an independent cost analysis to clarify the true cost of collecting Internet Connection Records. There is no evidence that collecting ICRs makes us safer." Jesper Lund, chairman of IT-Political Association of Denmark: "The initial investment in the ISP industry for the Danish ICR plans would be 1 billion Danish kroner. On top of that there will be a substantial annual operation costs. The second largest cable ISP in Denmark, SE, has estimated that their annual costs for maintenance and data collection will be 25 percent of the initial investment." Notes to editors Average police officer pay falls between £28,000 - £31,000 with onboard costs of around 20% including pension and national insurance. The figure of 3,000 police officer jobs is equivalent to cutting 3,000 police officers earning £29,000 per annum plus onboard costs over a ten year period. References [1] http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmpublic/investigatorypowers/Memo/IPB20.htm [2] Oral evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill bit.ly/1OxpESk About Open Rights Group Open Rights Group is the UK’s leading voice defending freedom of expression, privacy, innovation, creativity and consumer rights on the Internet. Founded in 2005, we have over 3000 paying supporters and a movement of 36,000 activists. Winner of the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award 2012
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![]() The BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation is or should that be was a fine independent institution funded by the government and British licence fee payers and it was a world class service. Commercial advertising free thee Beeb provided some standout programming down the years but it is now at a crossroads. Claims of BBC bias toward the left or right of politics are nothing new but those allegations now have more than just little ring of truth to them. An important petition launched by campaign group 38 Degrees highlights how the Tory government aim to make the BBC nothing more than it’s paid for mouthpiece by appointing those who head the broadcasting company. 38 Degrees reports: This is the biggest threat to the BBC so far. John Whittingdale, the minister who’s deciding our BBC’s future, just announced he wants the government to choose the people who run the BBC. It means our most trusted broadcaster could be left in the hands of a government that wants to see it fail. ![]() Op-ed: When your child needs an operation in the UK and it is cancelled you will understandably be angry. When it is not NHS funded you will face huge costs. When he finally gets that operation but is denied the necessary post-op physiotherapy you will be livid. But there is much more to this story which is a sad indictment of Tory Britain in 2016. The boy at the heart of this story is Ben Baddeley who is 11-years-old and has cerebral palsy. He wrote to PM Cameron and his letter is in this report. Cameron's office wrote back but as you can see from that reply letter shown below his was impersonal and simply a rehash of an earlier NHS reply received. As Mrs Baddeley says David Cameron's letter simply echoes earlier responses from the NHS. Mr and Mrs Baddeley were not happy with Cameron's reply. It is an impersonal response and fails Ben and his parents on all levels. They have explained the situation and the Huffington Post UK reports: “The discussion he mentions with NHS England has already happened.” “The funding request he mentions has been refused four times because the NHS claim to have ‘no proof’ that this treatment is cost effective and our hospitals near us don’t employ the therapist needed.” We wonder what proof they have that the therapy will NOT benefit this child? Ben's father is asking people to share his story after several attempts to get the NHS funding for his son failed. An anonymous donor covered the £11,440 cost of surgery but then the "NHS refused to fund the 18 months of further rehabilitation treatments he needed, which cost just under £2,000 every month." The NHS is at a Tory government inflicted crisis point. This means our healthcare is back at the postcode lottery stage again. While new advances in medicine and treatments could help us all live longer once again it will the richest in British society who benefit from all advances. For the rest us some bureaucrat will look at the cost and availability before he or she decides if it is worth the cost and beneficial to the patient. That is a sad and sorry state of affairs. Paying for physiotherapy in the UK is not cheap and some people struggle to meet the costs of extended periods of treatment. But as we all pay for the NHS in taxes and national insurance contributions should we really have to bankroll treatment for our kids? Good luck to the Baddeley family. David Cameron is currently sunning himself in Lanzarote-we hope he reads this and other stories relating to Ben and does the decent thing when he returns to the UK. That is if he does. Such is the popularity of Cameron that The Canary boss Kerry-anne Mendoza of Farnborough, United Kingdom, started a petition for Home Secretary Theresa May asking her to "Ban David Cameron From Re-Entering The UK" and that petition already has 20,700 plus signatures! Donate at Ben's Go Fund me page here Check out Help Ben Walk Without Pain on Facebook here ![]() Eighty-five miles outside of Prague, there is a small town called Drahonice. There is nothing of note there except for an ex prison, which is currently being used to detain around one hundred refugees. It is a detention the refugees obviously do not wish for, but one, which they must pay for themselves. A daily fee of around 270 Kc (£7) is either taken off them or billed to them on their release. There is no logic in locking these people away. It is a pointless exercise; none of them face charges and on their release, the Czech authorities simply wash their hands of them and move them on, allowing them to continue their journey to wherever they were originally headed. The detention centre recently made local headlines after dozens of refugees staged a hunger strike, and a few self-harmed with broken glass. The protest has now ended and calm has been restored, but the outcome for the detainees remains the same: They are still imprisoned; they still do not know why they are being held, or when they will be released. Two fences, the inner one topped with coils of barbed wire, surround the prison and guards with dogs patrol the perimeter. Three types of authority guard the facility: contracted security guards, regular police and the prison wardens themselves, somewhat extreme for a prison population of so few and who face no charges. We were held in a cold waiting room for two hours, a wait longer than the car journey itself. The reason, for the delay we were told, was there had been rumours of an escape and so they had to complete a head count. I wondered whether this was true or merely a tactic to induce stress on the visitors, to deter them from future visits. The search we were subjected to before entering was that of one of a maximum security prison whilst the decor inside resembled a primary school. Hand drawn pictures adorned the walls of the corridor that led to the rooms where we would meet the refugees. Pictures depicting peace and tranquillity, pictures that did not belong in the scenario the refugees now find themselves in. As this was the first time these paintings had apparently been on show, and the fact one of them was signed by a female, in an all-male prison, they were met with suspicion. A PR stunt for the visiting lawyers perhaps? The meeting room was uninviting and bore all the hallmarks of an abandoned property. A table and chairs were provided but there were no refreshments on offer for either visitors or captives; I don’t think any of us were particularly welcome. Through the window we could see the hospital wing and a concrete football pitch that the refugees are allowed to use, but nobody does. The first refugees I met were Aarif, an Afghani, and two Pakistani men, Jamil and Nadim. Not their real names, their names have been changed to protect identity. They were arrested on a train at Prague and had been locked up for four months. Their appearance seemed OK physically but the psychological strains of their situation were evident. Aarif told us he had been an interpreter for the allied forces during the invasion of his country, and like many others, he was abandoned once the decision was made to pull out the troops. Facing the likelihood of retribution from the Taliban, he had little choice but to flee. I met a fifteen-year old boy. A child locked up in a world that no man deserves to be in. Told to lie about his age to the authorities, and with no documents to prove otherwise, he is treated like an adult and so remains incarcerated. He has been at Drahonice for three months and has just had his sentence increased by another three. He doesn’t know why. No one does. The criteria for release are purely random here. I asked about their wellbeing and was told that although there are no real physical attacks by the guards, every three or four days, they are woken in the middle of the night and forcefully spread-eagled against the wall. They are kept in these stress positions for up to half an hour whilst searches are carried out. No one is certain what the guards are searching for. It is after all, nigh on impossible for anything to be smuggled into the prison, and the searches are more frequent than the visits. It is a harsh scenario that the refugees find themselves in and one that makes no sense other than to deter further refugees entering the Czech Republic, and with only two out of approximately six hundred refugees travelling through the country applying for asylum, it appears the tactic is working; however wrong that is. By Lee Wright Also: People helping refugees in the Czech republic Lee is currently working in Belize doing an internship with an NGO. He is looking for a career change from a financial background and into writing. You can find Lee on twitter @leeroyjw and at his online blog here Amnesty highlights Czech treatment of refugees The Government has responded to the petition – “Reverse the ESA disability benefit cut”.
Government responded: We are committed to providing the right support to those with health conditions and disabilities. This change only affects new claims from April 2017 and no current claimants will be cash losers. In the Summer Budget 2015, we announced that, from April 2017, new Employment Support Allowance (ESA) claimants who are placed in the work-related activity group (WRAG) will receive the same rate of benefit as those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). This change only affects new claims made after that date and there will be no cash losers among those who are already in receipt of ESA. This reform affects those with limited capability for work. Those with the most severe work-limiting health conditions and disabilities, who are placed in the Support Group, will be completely unaffected by these changes. The reason for implementing this reform is clear. The current system fails to provide the right support to help those with health conditions and disabilities towards and into work, and acts to trap people on welfare. We are committed to ensuring that people have the best support possible, and that is what these changes are about. The recent record employment levels have benefitted many but have yet to reach those on ESA. It is important to remember that whilst 1 in 5 JSA claimants move off benefit every month, only 1 in 100 of ESA WRAG claimants does so. Those with health conditions and disabilities deserve better than this. In addition to providing financial security for individuals, work often has a profound effect on people’s life chances and it is right that this Government does everything it can to provide better support to get people into work. More than three-fifths (61 per cent) of those in the ESA WRAG say they want to work – and there is a large body of evidence showing that work is generally good for physical and mental wellbeing. This change enables us to recycle money into providing practical support that will make a significant difference to the life chances of those in the WRAG. This new funding will be worth £60 million in 2017/18 rising to £100 million in 2020/21 and will support those with limited capability for work to move towards and into suitable employment. As set out in the Budget 2016, the nature of this support is being influenced by a Taskforce of disability charities, employers, think tanks, provider representatives and local authorities. Furthermore, we are providing a further £15 million for the Jobcentre Plus Flexible Support Fund in 2017-18 to help claimants who have limited capability for work with the extra costs that can be involved in moving closer to the labour market and into work. These changes are part of a wider reform to help support more disabled people and those with health conditions work and to remain in work. Over the coming year we will build the progress we have made in partnership with disabled people, their representatives, and healthcare professionals, using their insights to understand how the welfare system can work better with the health and social care systems. Our reforms are aimed at improving the quality of life of those in greatest need. Again, it is worth noting that we spend around £50 billion every year on benefits to support people with disabilities or health conditions, which represents over 6 per cent of all Government spending. We are proud of that commitment and we are determined to ensure that those most in need continue to receive the support they require. Department of Work and Pensions Click this link to view the response online: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124016?reveal_response=yes This petition has over 100,000 signatures. The Petitions Committee will consider it for a debate. They can also gather further evidence and press the government for action. The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee Thanks, The Petitions team UK Government and Parliament -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hours later the following was received via email indicating they never had any intention of debating the petition: The Petitions Committee decided not to debate the petition you signed – “Reverse the ESA disability benefit cut” The House of Commons Petitions Committee has decided not to schedule a debate on this petition, because this subject has already been discussed and voted on in the House of Commons. The changes to ESA were proposed in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which has been debated in both Houses of Parliament. In particular, on 2 March MPs debated and voted on House of Lords amendments to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. This included an amendment on Employment Support Allowance, which was rejected. On 7 March the bill cleared its final parliamentary stage and it is now waiting to be signed into law. You can read the debates at every stage of the Bill here: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/welfarereformandwork.html You can read the debate on 2 March here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm160302/debtext/160302-0003.htm#16030293000001 Above-Czech volunteers and an anti-refugee protest - the good eggs and the bad apples ![]() The dark side of the Czech Republic’s feelings towards refugees is well documented. Recently, Miloš Zeman, the Czech Republic’s president, has likened the refugee crisis to an illegal invasion, and has even crazily suggested that troops be deployed to drive them back. Thousands of people across the Czech Republic took to the streets in protest, not at their leader’s idea of fighting fear with fire, but to demonstrate against the refugees entering their country. Zenman also attended an anti-Islam protest and even took to the stage to tell the thousands gathered, that those against Islam and refugees should not be branded racist. Czech police made headlines with reports that they have been marking the refugees with numbers as they arrest them on trains, a move that has been likened to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews en route to the concentration camps. The detention centres have also come under fire recently. Anna Sabatova, the Czech Ombudswoman described the conditions as being so bad, they violate the Convention on Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Anna recently told a press conference – “The children are traumatised by seeing their parents being transported to the facility in handcuffs and by being kept behind a four metre-high fence with barbed wire. What we also see as unacceptable is the evening counting of inmates, which involves waking the children up if they have already gone to sleep. A recent poll carried out by the Czech Academy of Sciences, found that almost 70% of the Czech population are opposed to refugees entering their country, and there have even been reports of people being attacked for offering support to refugees. One such victim was simply defending the services of a café that publicly displayed solidarity with the refugees. Thankfully, there are always good eggs amongst the bad apples, but the good deeds take a little bit of extra digging to uncover. There were counter protests at the anti-Islam demonstration, far outnumbered but with just as loud a voice. An organization called ‘Association for migration and integration’, offer help to refugees and try to influence the local population, to try and cultivate tolerance towards refugees, and to fight any existing racism and xenophobia. They are not alone in this field of work. There are also other migrations focused NGOs cooperating on various projects amongst themselves, and with partner organizations in other countries through European projects. A charity organization called OPU provides lawyers free of charge for those seeking asylum, and for the refugees who find themselves imprisoned in the detention centres. Volunteers also visit the detention centres. They offer solidarity and take packages of clothes, books and cigarettes to the prisoners; all paid for from donations from the public. On release from the detention camps, the refugees are sent on to their destinations by trains, often with no money due to having to pay for their own detention, and so a group of about two hundred and fifty volunteers take shifts in meeting the refugees on the trains at Prague’s main train station; offering advice, money, food and even a roof over their heads. Some Czech companies have offered jobs to the refugees, with 5,000 positions available immediately. However, only 2 out of the 600 or so refugees that passed through the country during the last three-months have decided to apply for asylum. Social media is playing its part too. Facebook groups have been set up for volunteers wishing to help the refugees. They are used to coordinate volunteers, to provide information on the numbers and locations of the refugees, and for those wishing to volunteer: to advertise and offer their skills. There are many residents of the Czech Republic helping the migrants, not only in their home country but also in foreign lands. Some 3,500 citizens have left their country to help the refugees, distributing aid and equipment as well as helping to build shelters at the closed borders where the refugees congregate. The Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka is also a fan of the work of the NGO’s. At a recent meeting with them, he expressed his gratitude for the work they are doing and has promised to cooperate more in the future, an extremely important outcome. With the recent Paris attacks, public opinion of the refugees is likely to be negative, but Marie Hermanova, the press and media support for the NGO’s, told me that the Czech media works alongside the migrant NGO’s, and that there is a good relationship between them. Marie said - “The volunteers are now being blamed for having blood on their hands, like they are responsible for what happened. We are helping people who are fleeing from terrorist attacks and we are being blamed for helping terrorists. After Paris, this is more important than ever”. The Czech people are split. On one hand you have the president and the right wing extreme groups, and on the other you have a strong volunteer movement. It is an extremely divided population. Marie added – “We need to talk to each other, we need to understand each other, we, as volunteers who are helping refugees, need to talk to people who don’t want them here and are afraid. We need to find out why are they afraid, we need to share our stories, we need to listen to each other and be open”. Educating the masses who agree with the president may seem like a large task, but there are it seems, more than enough people willing to take on the job, and if they can keep the Prime Minister and the media on board, their job will be that little bit easier. By Lee Wright Written originally in November the post remains relevant. Lee is currently working in Belize doing an internship with an NGO. He is looking for a career change from a financial background and into writing. You can find Lee on twitter @leeroyjw and at his online blog here Amnesty highlights Czech treatment of refugees |
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