Figures released  in a report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner showed that more than 500,000 requests to access phone and e-mail records were made in 2008 under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

An average of about 1,500 surveillance requests were made every day in Britain last year,  equivalent to one in every 78 adults being targeted every year.  Statistically, that amounts to 140 solicitors being targeted for surveillance each year.

The total number of requests last year was up by more than 40% on 2006.

"It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year," said Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne. 

"We have sleepwalked into a surveillance state, but without adequate safeguards. Having the Home Secretary in charge of authorisation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house. The government forgets that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning and not a blueprint."