By common consent, the last Labour Government had a questionable record on protecting civil liberties.

The proposal to detain terror suspects for 90 days without charge was rightly dropped, as was the outrageously expensive plan to force citizens to carry ID cards.

However, the current Scottish Government is not perfect on the same vital issue, and there are rising fears that the actions of Police Scotland, in particular, are starting to imperil cherished civil liberties in Scotland.

The government's proposal to give dozens of bodies - from HMRC to Scottish Canals - access to the NHS central register, seems ill-judged and out of step with public opinion.

And the SNP Government's creation of a national police force, with the loss of proper governance arrangements, is fast becoming its most worrying policy.

Not only has Police Scotland authorised officers throughout the country to carry guns on routine patrols, but the industrial use of stop and search deployed by the old Strathclyde force was rolled out nationally.

On the latter policy, it is appropriate that in some circumstances the basic details of individuals should be collected and stored by officers after a search.

If drugs, knives or firearms have been detected, an arrest will inevitably mean that a name, address and date of birth will be taken.

However, a change in practice by Police Scotland has widened the information stored to include people's telephone numbers.

These are being taken not just in cases where illegal items have been found, but after legally questionable "consensual" searches that have yielded nothing.

This policy change was intended to give those individuals frisked in Fife - which is running a stop and search pilot - the opportunity of feedback.

However, the national stop and search IT application was changed so that every officer could, in theory, enter phone numbers collected from thousands of citizens.

And while the Fife pilot ended recently, the practice of collecting and recording phone numbers has continued.

According to the Scottish Human Rights Commission, a better approach for Police Scotland to receive feedback on stop and search would be to hand out a contact number, rather than seek the personal details of those searched.

This would mean that any evaluation would be based on those persons who had chosen to contact the police about their search, rather than individuals handpicked by the force.

Yet again, this episode bears the hallmarks of an over-bearing police force which pushes ahead with controversial changes without consulting key stakeholders.

The reputation of Police Scotland can still be turned around, but the jury is out on whether Stephen House is the right person to lead the transformation.