Crusade to outlaw email snooping

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant will launch a Private Member's Bill when Parliament reconvenes next month which he hopes will limit the ability of bosses to look at workers' personal email.

The proposed legislation is designed to bring email laws in line with those that apply to telephone calls and postal mail.

"While I appreciate that employers need to be satisfied that their employees are working during the hours for which they are paid, it does not give them the right to snoop into the private emails of their employees," Fabricant said.

"My change to the law would give the same protection to emails as already exists for conventional mail and telephone calls. Emails could still be monitored by the police and security services to counter crime and terrorism, provided that they have first obtained a court warrant. This system works satisfactorily for phone taps and the same safeguards should exist for email communication too."

Fabricant, Conservative MP for Lichfield, is chairman of the House of Commons Information Committee with responsibility to look at IT-related issues.