Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has once again warned the government against "knee-jerk" efforts to revive the Communications Data Bill in the wake of the murder of drummer Lee Rigby.
Dubbed by critics the "snooper's charter", the proposed legislation would have required internet firms to store records of all email and social media communications for up to a year in order to allow the authorities to access them in the interests of national security if required.
The bill was dropped from the Queen's Speech following opposition from the Liberal Democrats. The plans have also come under fire from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter who all say they wouldn't co-operate with the legislation, even if it were to be introduced as law.
"Very important parts of what was proposed just weren't workable because the industry, the Facebooks, the Googles and all these people upon whose co-operation we rely to go after the bad people, just said it wasn't really workable in its present form," said Clegg, speaking on his LBC 97.3 radio show on Thursday.
"Other aspects of it have always struck me as perhaps being disproportionate."
Clegg insists he supports the need for powers to monitor criminals, but freedom of British citizens needs to be taken into account.
"I have never suggested that the very considerable powers that our security services and the police have - far in excess, by the way, of many other forces in other parts of the world - should in any way be rolled back," he said.
"Quite the reverse, I'm actually saying in one important respect - matching IP addresses to individual phones and mobile appliances - we should take further action.
"I think the British public want us politicians to strike this very difficult balance of protecting the freedoms, the democracy, the traditions of liberty which these horrific extremists and terrorists want to threaten... but also giving the security services and the police the proportionate, workable tools to keep us safe," Clegg added.
