The House of Lords Constitution Committee has today launched a new inquiry into the impact that government surveillance and data collection have upon the people's privacy.

The inquiry, which is set against a backdrop of increased use of CCTV, the creation of the national DNA database, the new NHS Spine and the proposals for ID cards, will seek to find out if increased surveillance and data collection by the state have fundamentally altered the way it relates to members of the public.

The committee will be seeking answers to questions including what forms of surveillance and data collection might be considered constitutionally proper or improper? It will also ask if there is a line that should not be crossed and how this could be identified.

It will also see what effect public and private sector surveillance and data collection have on liberty and privacy and whether the Data Protection Act is sufficient to protect people.

Commenting ahead of the publication of the Constitution Committee’s call for evidence, Lord Holme of Cheltenham, chairman of the group, said: “The nature and extent of surveillance and data collection have changed dramatically in recent years.

"We now have close to 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK and with the introduction of the NHS Spine and the ID card database the Government will hold more information about us than ever before.

“The broad constitutional implications of these changes have not thus far been sufficiently closely scrutinised. As a committee we hope to get to the bottom of how these changes are altering the relationship between individuals and the State, and to ascertain whether necessary protection is in place.”