Human rights

The present appeals concerned the systematic collection and retention by police authorities of electronic data about individuals. The Supreme Court, in allowing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s appeals, held that there had been no disproportionate interference with the respondents’ rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Retention of material concerning the first respondent was justified by the legitimate requirements of police intelligence gathering and, as to the second respondent, the retention policy had been flexible enough to allow for information to be deleted when retaining it would no longer serve any useful policing purpose.