Wigtown Book Festival celebrates the power of the written word but Scottish PEN is deeply concerned about how unwarranted and suspicionless surveillance can undermine the ability of novelists, poets and playwrights to express themselves free from coercion or duress.

While the government made a number of concessions to strengthen privacy protections, Scottish PEN does not believe these reforms go far enough to fully protect free expression and privacy.

The SNP’s amendment to ensure that meaningful judicial oversight extends to Scotland, instead of the ministerial mechanism currently in place, is a vital amendment that Scottish organisations, commentators and policy-makers should get behind.

As an organisation charged with representing writers to ensure the fundamental freedoms to write, read and share thoughts, there are a number of aspects of the Investigatory Powers Bill that could threaten these freedoms were they to be made into law.

Scottish PEN condemns the government’s decision to introduce the Investigatory Powers Bill (IP Bill) after less than three weeks since the joint committee released its report.

Scottish PEN responds to the government’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill with written evidence.