New law hands UK spy agencies 'extreme surveillance', say critics

Britain’s intelligence services have been given new wide-ranging surveillance powers in a new law dubbed the "snoopers’ charter" by critics.

The Investigatory Powers Act has now been given royal assent, meaning that those surveillance rules will pass into law, reports The Independent.

The bill was officially unveiled a year ago and passed through the House of Lords earlier this month, but the act of being signed off means that those powers now go into effect.

The new powers include rules that force internet providers to keep complete records of every website that all of their customers visit. Those will be available to a wide number of government departments.

Spy agencies will also be able to force companies to help hack into phones, and to collect more information than ever before on anyone in Britain. 

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: "This Government is clear that, at a time of heightened security threat, it is essential our law enforcement, security and intelligence services have the powers they need to keep people safe."

But critics say the new powers won by intelligence agencies is a snoopers’ charter, which will mean government intrusion into people’s lives.

Opponents are pinning their hopes to a petition that has passed the 100,000 signatures needed to be considered for another debate in the House of Commons. As a result of the petition passing 10,000 signatures, the government must also issue a formal response to it.

Among the critics is Edward Snowden, the US intelligence whistleblower, who said: "The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes farther than many autocracies."