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The order as it stood last summer gave hundreds of bodies - from the police force to parish councils - access to communications data: data on electronic communications (although not the content of them).

It met with national disdain, and David Blunkett swiftly withdrew it for further consultation.

But it has now appeared again - this time with stiffer conditions on who, how and for what reason public bodies can gain access to such information.

Home Office Minister Caroline Flint, said: 'We are absolutely committed to safeguarding individual privacy and that is why the Home Secretary promised last summer to rethink the proposals.

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We have consulted widely and listened carefully.

'We have dramatically cut down the number of organisations who will be allowed access to all communications data and significantly tightened up the procedures for access to data by all organisations.'

However, while parish councils can no longer acquire this information, there remain others whose privileges remain.

Barry Hugill, spokesman for Liberty, the human rights and civil liberties organisation, said: 'We're amazed at the number of organisations that have been given these powers. Why the Charities Commission or the Post Office need this information is beyond us.'

And the reason for turning all these public bodies into specialist police forces, according to the Home Office, is that 'the additional public authorities have specialist powers conferred on them by parliament to carry out criminal investigations. In addition, the police resources are given priority and not able to cope with the extra workload.'

Which would rather beg the question: 'Why not make more resources available to the police?'

Hugill added: 'We're the world leaders in CCTV, and the government seems to want us to be the world leader in covert surveillance, too.'