Hazel Blears says today's reports acknowledges for the first time that intelligence agencies "bulk data sets" - containing information about a large range of people

Parts of the report have been heavily-redacted and is largely absent of specific numbers. The Committee says only a tiny percentage of all internet traffic is selected to be read by GCHQ analysts but this still amounts to "around *** thousand items a day". These are "only the ones considered to be of the highest intelligence value", the ISC adds.

Thousands of private communications are read by GCHQ spies every day through bulk interception methods, the report says. But GCHQ accesses a very limited number of the communications that is has the capability to collect. GCHQ's surveillance of communications is "not blanket and indiscriminate," Hazel Blears says.

The Committee adds it is "unavoidable that some innocent communications may have been accidentally collected" but insists only exchanges involving suspected criminals or national security targets are deliberately selected for examination.

More on the intelligence and security committee report on surveillance. It says a single law is required to keep in check the powers of the intelligence agencies to snoop on private communications.

The report says the current legal framework governing GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 is "unnecessarily complicated" and "lacks transparency".

Hazel Blears MP, above, says: "There is a legitimate public expectation of openness and transparency in today's society, and the security and intelligence agencies are not exempt from that.

"While we accept that they need to operate in secret if they are to be able to protect us from those who are plotting in secret to harm us, the government must make every effort to ensure that information is placed in the public domain when it is safe to do so."

tweets:, external Breaking: UK spies were dismissed for inappropriately accessing people' personal information held in bulk datasets #ISCreport

The legal framework surrounding surveillance is "unnecessarily complicated" and "lacks transparency", MPs say.

An Intelligence and Security committee report says the current powers of UK security agencies to access private communications should be replaced by a single law.

Hazel Blears from the Commons Select Committee is speaking about the findings of its report on access to private communications

tweets, external: Sadiq Khan calls young jobless Brits "Black, Asian, and multi-ethnic". I call them "British" and argued FOR jobs for them over EU migrants.

BBC News Channel

Sadiq Khan accuses Nigel Farage of "breathtaking ignorance" over his comments on racial discrimination. The Labour MP says signs saying "no blacks" or "no Irish" were still seen in the UK when his parents moved to the UK.

If rules on discrimination are repealed, employers could choose not to employ black people, while landlords could reject people based on colour, Mr Khan says.

He tells Norman Smith he doesn't believe Mr Farage is racist, but suggests he has forgotten the history of the UK.

"If you think it's mission accomplished", Mr Khan adds, "that leads to the kind of problems we see elsewhere in the world."

tweets:, external Development Secretary @JustineGreening, external statement on #UK response to #Ebola outbreak in W Africa from around 11.15am

tweets, external: Nearly 50,000 welsh women on zero hours contracts. @UKLabour will end zero hrs exploitation #pinkbus #bwspinc

Newsbeat

BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat has published the results of a poll of young voters on what issues they think matter ahead of the election. It indicates 18 to 24-year-olds care about the NHS more than any other issue, followed by keeping down the cost of everyday items.

The survey also suggests young adults are more concerned about affordable housing and immigration than crime. More on the results of the polls here.

tweets, external: Banco Sabadell shares fall 7.5%, shares suspended

tweets, external: In clandestine Commons chats, Labour shadow cabinet flirt with Lib Dems. Details in my column in today's Times , external

Lloyds Banking Group is set to sell its remaining 50% stake in TSB to Spanish bank Sabadell. The preliminary £1.7bn takeover approach for the UK challenger bank comes less than a year after it rejoined the London stock market after a split from Lloyds, which remains 23% owned by the UK taxpayer, ie us.

TSB says its board is ready to recommend Sabadell's 340p-a-share offer. It says Sabadell could support and accelerate its "retail growth strategy".

It also shores up Lloyds balance sheet, which would suggest the government will be in a position to sell out its remaining stake in the bank soon after the election. That's also going to raise expectations that the Chancellor may make some announcement around this in his final Budget before the election next week.

Image source, PA

Nick Clegg comes to the story on the front of the Telegraph this morning, external. A former head of fundraising for the Liberal Democrats - Ibrahim Taguri - has said he will step down as a party candidate after the newspaper alleged he had accepted a "potentially illegal donation".

The paper also says Mr Taguri arranged a private meeting between the would-be donor and Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Mr Clegg says the idea Mr Alexander has done anything wrong is "categorically untrue". He says the Lib Dems have had their donations process checked and approved by the electoral commission. The claims over Mr Taguri will now be look at by the commission, Mr Clegg says.

The deputy prime minister says: "no cheque has been received by the Liberal Democrats".

"Had we received the cheque in question we would have looked at it," Mr Clegg adds.

Louis Lavery, Politics live reader

write: Laws might change how people behave but seldom, if ever, change what they think. For that you need debate which, ironically, those same laws tend to discourage, if not prevent.

On LBC, Nick Clegg says he agrees with Nigel Farage on the TV debates. But on the UKIP leader's comments about discrimination laws, the Lib Dem leader says: "I strongly disagree. Discrimination laws are there for a reason."

Speaking about the TV debates, Nick Clegg says he wants one with four leaders - himself, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage.

Mr Clegg said: "The format that seems to me to have been missing entirely is what the regulators, this body called Ofcom, said were the four major parties. The Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP. Let's by all means have one with everyone there, but it'd be good to have one with the four main parties. The four-way should be done as well. That seems to have been lost in the wash."

tweets, external: When Gordon Brown says "British jobs for British workers", that's OK. When Nigel Farage says it, it's not OK. Odd, that.