Blunkett admits error as he shelves 'snooper' Bill

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, shelved plans to expand powers to monitor private e-mails and telephone calls yesterday, admitting that the Government had blundered on the issue.

The controversial proposals to allow public bodies access to electronic records would not be brought forward until the next session of Parliament at the earliest and may be dropped altogether, he said.

The Home Office had announced on Monday that it was likely to delay the plans by a week, but Mr Blunkett said he would not now go ahead until a "broad public debate" had been held on privacy.

MPs had been due to debate a draft order yesterday enabling various Whitehall departments, as well as local authorities and other public bodies such as the Food Standards Agency, access to communications data.

But aftera welter of criticism from civil liberties groups, his own constituents and even his son, the Home Secretary said he shared their worry that the powers were being extended needlessly.

Mr Blunkett said the public debate should carry on beyond the winter, making clear that any new proposals could not come before the Commons before next year.

The Tories had warned that they would oppose a draft parliamentary order extending the powers, condemned as a "snooper's charter", when it came to the Lords.

The draft order would have extended the surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which are currently restricted to the police, the intelligence agencies, Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue.

In a clear attempt to defuse the issue, Mr Blunkett said his department had failed to foresee the "widespread concern" over the widening powers to councils and other bodies.

"It seems to me if you are in a hole you should stop digging, that we should listen, that democracy is about people being able to respond," he told The World at One on BBC Radio 4. "I was prepared to take abuse about climbdowns rather than actually get on the wrong side of the British public.

"I have a son of my own who is in the data business who said, 'Look, Dad, people are simply seeing this in exactly the opposite direction to what you intended and if you don't get off it you are going to end up with people not just misinterpreting but believing that their own communications data is going to be interfered with'.

"As someone who believes very strongly in my own privacy, I share the worry that people have about that. If they are hearing what we are doing wrongly then we need to start from scratch."

Mr Blunkett said that the Data Protection Act provided considerable safeguards against abuse, but he and other ministers would attempt to build "consensus" before trying to introduce similar orders.

A spokesman for the Home Secretary said it was now up to bodies such as the Food Standards Agency and local councils to explain why they believed they needed the powers.

Lord Strathclyde, Tory leader in the Lords, welcomed the U-turn but warned that he wanted to be sure the "ministerial curtain-twitchers can be put back in their box".

Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, said: "This is a humiliating climbdown for the Home Secretary. In his view I suppose it is better than a humiliating defeat, which is what would have happened if the Government had pressed on with this measure."

John Wadham, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "The Home Office's retreat is a welcome boost for the defence of basic privacy."