Putting Surveillance on the Political Agenda – A Short Defence of Surveillance: Citizens and the State

Abstract

In February 2009 the House of Lords Constitutional Committee in the United Kingdom published the report Surveillance: Citizens and the State. Some have hailed this as a landmark document. Volume 6(3) of Surveillance & Society published 4 invited responses to this report written by prominent scholars. In the attached paper the two Specialist Advisers to this Committee set the context for the report and provide a brief rejoinder to the four responses. NOTE: The authors write in their academic and personal capacities, and not as representatives of the Committee