Justice: Privacy laws review 'may be needed'

Kenneth Clarke said all states have "a natural tendency to accumulate more power than they need and to impose more restrictions than are strictly and sensibly necessary".

His comments came after the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham warned that no-one was checking whether new laws that invade privacy were justified.

Warnings that Britain was "sleepwalking into a surveillance society" were "no less cogent" in 2010 than they were four years ago, a report found.

Mr Clarke said there would be a "lot less ill-considered laws" if scrutiny of how they were being used in practice was brought in.

Mr Clarke was speaking at the launch of celebrations to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta.