THE row over Poole council's spying on a local family has been reignited.

MPs have launched a fresh probe into council use of controversial anti-terror laws, while the mother at the centre of the storm has claimed the council acted unlawfully.

The nationwide furore which arose after Poole council spied on Jenny Patton and her family provoked widespread concern over the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

Now MPs on the Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee are to investigate the use of the Act. They are likely to call for the Home Office to issue guidelines to local authorities who use it to crack down on petty offences.

Mrs Paton, whose family was spied on for more than two weeks over suspicions they cheated the school catchment system, is to make a complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

"We do believe it was unlawful," she said. "It was unnecessary and it was disproportionate to the crime'."

The family had two homes, one within the catchment area for Lilliput First School, where she had applied for a place for her youngest child.

Mrs Paton says she and her partner Tim Joyce were not cautioned or invited to get legal advice when they were called in and interviewed. And their daughter was offered a place at the popular school.

She said: "They failed to apologise for it and they do seem to like these powers. It has to be proportionate and necessary. In this case we believe they failed. We'll let the IPT rule on that."

They have the support of Liberty, whose legal director James Welch called the case "both a disproportionate and unnecessarily intrusive use of RIPA".

However the council maintains a defence of its actions. "We believe the council's use of RIPA has been proportionate," said Tim Martin, head of legal and democratic services.

"On the limited number of occasions when the use of RIPA was authorised, council officers acted within the requirements of the legislation and the operations were appropriately monitored," he said.

The IPT investigates complaints about the use of RIPA, including by the security services. Last week, the Information Commissioner announced it would be contacting Poole over concerns it was abusing its powers.