Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is monitoring content that is publicly available on social networking sites using overt monitoring techniques.

The Home Office does seek to monitor or access information published on social media, where relevant and available, to support specific investigations and conduct research. Such activity is only conducted where there is an identified business need, in line with Home Office objectives.

Open source data, including information publically available online, is of increasing importance and it is right that the Department seek to take account of all available relevant information.