APPLE vs THE UK GOVERNMENT: THIS IS ABOUT OUR PRIVATE LIVES Something serious is happening between Apple and the British Government, and it goes far beyond a dispute between a technology company and Whitehall. On 11 SEPTEMBER 2026, US Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Congressman Warren Davidson called for greater transparency from Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal over Apple’s legal battle with the UK Government. They say Apple has been restricted in what it can tell US lawmakers about the dispute. At the centre of it are Technical Capability Notices, or TCNs, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. These can require technology companies to maintain technical capabilities that allow certain investigatory powers to be carried out. A TCN does not itself give the Government access to everyone’s data. Separate legal authorisation is required, and notices must go through Judicial Commissioner oversight. The Government says these powers are necessary because encryption can make it harder to investigate terrorism, serious organised crime and child sexual abuse. But encryption doesn’t only protect criminals. It protects the private information of ordinary people. In 2025, reports emerged that Apple had received a secret TCN relating to encrypted iCloud data. The reported scope was extremely broad, but neither Apple nor the Government confirmed the details, and the Tribunal made clear that its judgment should not be treated as confirmation of those reports. The Government does not publish the number or identities of companies that have received TCNs, and recipients can be restricted from disclosing their existence or contents. That means people can potentially be affected by secret Government demands without even knowing they have been made. Apple subsequently stopped offering Advanced Data Protection to new UK users. This did not remove all encryption from Apple services in Britain. iMessage and FaceTime remain end-to-end encrypted, along with several categories of iCloud data. Apple has also said it has never built a backdoor or master key into its products or services and never will. So where does that leave companies whose business is built around protecting their customers’ data? If a company builds encryption specifically to keep information private, what happens when a Government demands that it maintain a capability that could affect those protections? Apple’s first legal challenge ended after the original notice was withdrawn and replaced with another applying to UK users. In August 2026, Apple launched a fresh challenge to the Government’s power to issue TCNs. There is also a separate legal challenge from Privacy International, Liberty and two individuals, questioning the lawfulness and secrecy of the TCN regime. Their substantive hearing is currently listed for December 2026. WhatsApp also sought to intervene in the proceedings, but that application was refused in July 2025. I believe consumers should have a right to know when secret Government demands can affect the security of the services they use. The Government has a legitimate responsibility to protect people from terrorism and serious crime. But citizens also have a legitimate expectation that the state will respect their private lives. Where does this end? What rights do we really have when the Government can make demands behind closed doors and the company receiving them may be prevented from telling us? And if technology companies are expected to protect our private information, what happens when Governments demand changes to those protections? This isn’t just about Apple. It is about how far the state should be able to go to obtain our private information, and whether privacy still means anything when those powers can operate largely behind closed doors. National security matters. Protecting children matters. Stopping serious crime matters. But so does the right to have a private life. There has to be a line.

FUJITSU: REWARDED AFTER THE POST OFFICE HORIZON SCANDAL. WHY ARE THEY STILL BEING PAID? The Post Office Horizon scandal is still not over. More than two decades after innocent postmasters were prosecuted, bankrupted and imprisoned because of faulty Fujitsu software, victims are still waiting for full justice. One victim, Martin Griffiths, took his own life in 2013 after being wrongly accused of stealing money from his Post Office branch. His death remains a stark reminder of the scandal’s devastating human cost. By 28 August 2026, approximately £1.697 billion had been paid in Horizon redress. Fujitsu has paid nothing towards it. In March 2026, Parliament said Fujitsu had still made no interim contribution and called for one urgently. The Government accepted that recommendation. No payment has been announced. The criminal investigation also continues. Operation Olympos began in January 2020. By May 2026, police were dealing with around eight million documents. There were 53 people under investigation, with 13 interviewed under caution. Police were targeting late 2027 or early 2028 for files to be submitted to prosecutors. Without substantially more resources, investigators warned that the case could take another five years. Yet Fujitsu remains eligible for major UK public-sector work. In March 2026, it received a £4,999,999 Ministry of Defence contract for MIRANDA sustainment, running until March 2028. On 12 March 2026, it received a £123,741 Lincolnshire Police contract for co-location data-centre services, running until December 2026. On 29 June 2026, the Home Office awarded it a £31.1 million contract for the Law Enforcement Community Network, running until June 2029. In August 2026, Northern Ireland’s Education Authority agreed a £55.4 million arrangement with Fujitsu for its EA One financial management, HR and payroll system. A modification added £15 million and extended the arrangement to 2032. In April 2025, Fujitsu was also awarded a £125 million contract to build Northern Ireland’s new land registry system. Then there are the Government frameworks. In July 2026, Fujitsu secured places on three Government frameworks with potential values of £14.9 billion, £19.08 billion and approximately £2.3 billion. These are framework ceilings, not money already awarded to Fujitsu. But they leave the company eligible to compete for major public-sector work. In January 2024, Fujitsu voluntarily announced that it would stop bidding for work with new Government customers until the Horizon Inquiry concluded. It was never a Government ban. Existing relationships, extensions and certain other work could continue. Parliament later found that between May 2024 and September 2025, public-sector bodies entered into eight Fujitsu contracts worth £362 million, alongside 21 extensions. In March 2026, the Business and Trade Committee called for Fujitsu’s voluntary restriction to be strengthened to cover indirect routes such as consortiums and subcontracting. On 9 September 2026, the Cabinet Office confirmed that Fujitsu had assured officials it would not use its new framework positions to pursue work from new public-sector customers while its voluntary moratorium remained in force. The Government says it is monitoring compliance. But this is yet another example of companies being rewarded after complete failure. A company whose software helped cause one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice remains eligible for taxpayer-funded work, while victims wait for compensation and investigators continue working through millions of documents. That is not accountability. Governments must address this properly. Companies responsible for catastrophic failures in public services should not be allowed to continue profiting from public contracts as though nothing happened.

HASLAR: THE £64 MILLION IMMIGRATION DETENTION CONTRACT Haslar Immigration Removal Centre in Gosport is reopening. This is an immigration detention facility, not an asylum accommodation centre. It is intended to hold people under immigration powers while arrangements are made for their removal, including time-served foreign national offenders and immigration offenders. Haslar stopped accepting detainees in March 2015 and formally closed as an immigration removal centre in 2016. More than a decade later, the Home Office plans to reopen it in 2027 with around 130 beds. It is also seeking permission to add another 470, taking the proposed capacity to around 600. On 11 September 2026, the Planning Inspectorate confirmed a full public inquiry into the expansion, beginning 17 November 2026. But the operator has already been chosen. In July 2026, the Home Office awarded the Haslar operating contract to CIRRA, a joint venture between Clearsprings (Management) Limited and IRARA Secure Solutions Ltd. The contract is worth £63,968,042 excluding VAT, or £76,761,650 including VAT, from 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2030, with an option to extend to 2032. It also includes an option for the additional 470 beds. Clearsprings has already been a major Government immigration contractor. Its 2019 asylum accommodation contracts for the South of England and Wales were worth almost £1 billion combined. That history has not been without controversy. Inspections raised safeguarding concerns at Napier Barracks in 2021, accommodation problems were reported in 2022, and in 2025 the Home Office ordered major subcontractor Stay Belvedere Hotels Ltd removed from Clearsprings’ supply chain over performance concerns. The Home Affairs Committee in 2025 also criticised weaknesses in the Home Office’s oversight of subcontracting and financial controls. Now Clearsprings is part of the consortium responsible for running Haslar. The wider detention figures provide the backdrop. In the year to June 2026, 22,037 people entered immigration detention. On 30 June, 2,152 people were held under immigration powers, including 190 in prisons. On 29 June 2026, the Government announced that Haslar and Campsfield would contribute to a 40% increase in detention capacity, with their combined capacity planned to rise from around 290 to approximately 1,000 places. The Government says the wider programme will help remove more than 45,000 foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers over the next decade. Yet on 9 September 2026, Parliament asked the Home Office to publish the modelling behind future demand for detention places at Haslar and Campsfield. The answer is due 14 September. There is also a specific information gap around time-served foreign national offenders. On 30 June 2026, the Home Office was asked how many were immediately deported, held in removal centres or released on immigration bail while awaiting deportation. Its answer was that this breakdown is not available from published statistics. And the expansion itself faces an environmental objection. In 2026, the Environment Agency formally objected to Phase 2 because it considered the flood-risk information inadequate and recommended refusal unless the outstanding issues were resolved. The full planning inquiry begins on 17 November 2026.

Twenty-five years ago today, Al-Qaeda carried out the attacks that changed the security landscape of the Western world. 2,977 people were murdered, including 67 British nationals. Just six days later, on 17 September 2001, President George W. Bush stood at the Islamic Centre of Washington, D.C. and declared: “Islam is peace.” Britain would continue to experience that “religion of peace”. 7 July 2005. Four suicide bombers attacked London’s transport network, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds. In 2013, Fusilier Lee Rigby was beheaded in Woolwich by Islamist extremists. Then came 2017. Westminster, Manchester Arena, London Bridge and Parsons Green. Four Islamist attacks in one year. 35 innocent people were killed and hundreds were injured. The attacks continued, including Fishmongers’ Hall in 2019, Streatham in 2020 and the murder of Sir David Amess in 2021, treated as an act of terrorism motivated by Islamist ideology. Since March 2017, MI5 and the police say they have disrupted 43 late-stage terrorist attack plots. MI5 currently says Islamist terrorism makes up around 75% of its counter-terrorism caseload and remains the most significant terrorist threat to the UK by volume. The Government’s own CONTEST strategy recorded that Islamist terrorism accounted for approximately 67% of terrorist attacks since 2018. The latest Home Office figures show 273 people were in custody for terrorism and terrorism-connected offences as at 31 March 2026. 159, or 58%, were categorised as Islamist extremists. Of the 273, 219, or 80%, self-declared their nationality as UK. The Government says only 12 people have ever been removed under Deportation with Assurances arrangements. None since 2013. Thirteen years. Zero removals. While Islamist terrorism remains the primary terrorist threat, the Government is also spending up to £40 million in 2026/27 protecting mosques, Muslim schools and community centres. On top of the millions they have already received over the years. The government is allowed to say what the problem is The security services are allowed to say what the problem is The public are called far-right thugs for saying what the problem is SECURE THE BORDERS. DEPORT THOSE WITH NO RIGHT TO REMAIN. PROTECT BRITISH LIVES.