CIVIL liberties groups launched fresh legal action against the government today following disclosures that MI5 has unlawfully retained citizens’ personal data for several years.

Liberty and Privacy International are taking the government to a specialist tribunal to force it to disclose what they describe as “the extent of MI5’s lawlessness” in relation to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), dubbed the Snoopers’ Charter.

The two groups will ask the investigatory powers tribunal to rule that MI5 violated citizens’ human rights to privacy and free expression by unlawfully retaining and mishandling personal data.