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State can raid homes in 266 ways
By Marie Woolf
Published: 22 April 2007
An Englishman's home is no longer his castle, a study shows.
There are no fewer than 266 powers under which state officials can enter an individual's home, according to the centre-right thinktank, the Centre for Policy Studies.
These range from the right of Revenue and Customs officers to enter homes with a writ to seize suspected smuggled goods to the power of entry available to Environment Department officials under the Bees Act 1980.
The pamphlet entitled "Crossing the Threshold: 266 Ways the State Can Enter Your Home", says the bulk of the powers have been created by Parliament over the past two decades.
Its author, Harry Snook, said that, as concerns grow over the drift towards a "surveillance society", his new research demonstrated that the state today enjoys widespread access to what was previously considered to be the private domain.
"Where our home life is concerned, the duties of the state are less and so, concomitantly, should be its powers," wrote Mr Snook, a barrister.
"In a democracy, almost nobody suggests that we should be overseen in our living room to the same degree that we are outside."
Mr Snook's report recommends a new Act of Parliament to harmonise the procedural provisions of the dozens of existing entry powers and to protect the citizen by making accountability and transparency paramount in their use.