The bill to track everyone's email, Facebook, text and internet use has proved to be one of the most controversial within the coalition and has been slow-streamed in the government's legislative timetable after last-minute coalition talks.
The measure, criticised by civil liberty campaigners as a "snooper's charter", has been taken out of a more general Home Office- and Ministry of Justice-sponsored crime and courts bill, which ministers need to get on to the statute book as fast as possible.
The decision to have a standalone bill follows Nick Clegg's insistence that it must be accompanied by the "strongest possible safeguards". These are expected to include oversight case by case by a surveillance commissioner, a review of existing measures to protect the security of everyone's data and the publication of a privacy impact statement.
Clegg has also promised that the internet-tracking proposal will not be "rammed through parliament" and that open parliamentary hearings will be held to examine draft clauses of the legislation. The proposal has also attracted sharp criticism from the Tory libertarian right, with the former shadow home secretary David Davis calling it an "unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary people".
The Home Office confirmed that the communications data bill was to be published in draft and slow-streamed in the government's parliamentary timetable.
A briefing note said it would establish an "updated framework for collection, retention and acquisition of communications data" in the face of rapid technological change.
The Home Office said "strict safeguards" would include a 12-month limit on storing the data and measures to protect the data from unauthorised access or disclosure. The information commissioner will continue to oversee the destruction of this confidential data after 12 months.
The communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, a technical advisory board and judges on the investigatory powers tribunal will all have a role in overseeing the monitoring of data and investigating complaints.
Security and police chiefs say such communications data has played a significant role in every major security service counterterrorist investigation in the last decade. But the rapidly changing nature of internet use means they can no longer track communications between terrorist or criminal suspects.
The monitoring data will be available to the police and security services only in "real time", in cases involving active terrorist plots and in hostage or kidnapping situations where lives are at risk.
The bill will restrict access to the most sensitive types of data to the police, emergency services and intelligence agencies. However, local authorities, which were responsible for 1,800 out of the 500,000 requests for such data last year, will need the approval of a magistrate in future for such requests.
The human rights campaign group Liberty said ministers had revived plans for a snooper's charter which would see the collection and storage of the email, text, and web browsing records of the entire population. "A similar scheme was shelved by the Labour government in 2009 following a fierce backlash and its fresh inclusion in the Queen's speech represents a U-turn on the coalition's May 2010 promise to 'end the storage of internet and email records without good reason'. Liberty today launches its No Snoopers' Charter campaign against the proposals," the group said.
The separate crime and courts bill will set up the National Crime Agency from next April, speed up immigration appeals and strengthen the powers of UK Border Force officers.
It will also include proposals to introduce television cameras into courts, reform judicial appointments and allow magistrates sitting on their own to operate from community centres and police stations so they can deal with low-level, uncontested cases within days or even hours of a suspect's arrest.
