Privilege in peril?

• A statute can override legal professional privilege but Parliament’s intention to do so must be clear.

• The distinction, illustrated in Avonwick , between the right to obtain privileged information and the right to use it is an important one.

• The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 could mean that there is no certainty that privileged communications will not be intercepted or used.

The rule of law requires that individuals can obtain legal advice in private. The risk that a policeman is listening to a client’s discussions with his lawyer may stop an individual consulting a lawyer at all, or at least prevent him from giving a full and frank account to his lawyer. An individual, alone, without an effective lawyer in possession of the full facts, may not be able to obtain the justice the law provides.

Lord Taylor in R v Derby Magistrates’ Court, ex p B [1996] AC 487, [1995] 4 All ER 526, described