Phone-call logs to be stored for a year

UK telecoms companies will be required to retain call log information for 12 months after an EU-based directive was signed into law by the Home Secretary.

The Data Retention Regulations, which transpose most of the EU Data Retention Directive into UK law, were approved by the House of Lords on Tuesday and signed into law on Wednesday by Jacqui Smith.

The Data Retention Regulations stipulate that communications providers must keep data such as telephone number, registered user, number dialled and duration of call for the period of a year. The geographical location of the phone at the time of the call must also be retained, as must the telephone numbers used in forwarded calls. The data must be stored and transmitted without undue delay in response to requests.

The regulations will not at first apply to internet access, VoIP and email.