New communications data powers plan

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said communications data of the sort which helped convict Soham killer Ian Huntley and the July 21 bombers was not being routinely stored.

Without increasing their capacity to store data, the police and security services would have to consider a "massive expansion of surveillance", she said.

The plan would not include recording the contents of people's messages and appropriate safeguards would be put in place, she added.

Her announcement is likely to prompt fears of a "Big Brother" database watching people's every online move.

Announcing a consultation to begin in the new year, she said the changes were "vital" to maintain Britain's capacity to combat terrorism.

She said: "There are no plans for an enormous database which will contain the content of your emails, the texts that you send or the chats you have on the phone or online. Nor are we going to give local authorities the power to trawl through the database in the interests of investigating lower level criminality under the spurious cover of counter-terrorist legislation."

The changes would, she hoped, "enable us to maintain a capacity that is fundamental to our ability to combat not just terrorism but organised crime as well".

She faced repeated questioning from journalists over Security Minister Lord West's announcement that the authorities were monitoring the beginnings of "another great plot" by terrorists.

She pointed to the Government's publication of its assessment of the terror threat as "severe".