Letwin wants increased penalties for refusal to decrypt

[Pete Chown]

Owen Lewis wrote:

> It is simple. Is a search to authorised or not? If yes, that is the point at
> which the balance of private vs public interest has been decided.

My point is that there are some types of search which are considered too
oppressive under all circumstances.  For example, police cannot
generally get a warrant to search the offices of a defendant's
solicitor, even though such a search may well turn up evidence of his
guilt.

In this situation, magistrates have no discretion.  Unless the situation
is within one of the odd exceptions, they cannot grant a warrant
allowing the police to search a solicitor's office for papers connected
with a case.  The balancing of public and private interest has already
been done by Parliament, and the answer is no.  I regret that Parliament
didn't give such a clear negative answer in the case of GAK.

-- 
Pete