The Bar Council has urged the government to protect the right of citizens to hold private conversations with their lawyers. The call, supported the Law Society, comes as the proposed Protection of Freedoms Bill, intended to protect people from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives, goes through parliament.

Liberal Democrat Lady Hamwee proposed an amendment to the bill adding a clause to protect legal professional privilege in all circumstances except where privilege is being abused to further a criminal purpose. The government opposed the amendment and it was withdrawn without a vote.

The right to legal professional privilege was eroded in the 2009 case In Re McE when the House of Lords held that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 entitles police to listen in to lawyer-client conversations, even where there is no suggestion that privilege is being abused for a criminal purpose.

Bar chair Michael Todd QC said: ‘It is extremely disappointing that the government has not so far taken the opportunity presented by the bill to reassert the fundamental right of an individual to consult their lawyer in private. The government appears to want to continue to be able to erode this fundamental human right for investigatory purposes. In our view, this is unacceptable.’

Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said that legal professional privilege is ‘a fundamental human right that the ordinary citizen has had for centuries’. It is necessary for the proper administration of justice, Hudson said.