Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Davis & Ors v SSHD society to safeguard national security (i.e. State security), defence, public security, and the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences or of unauthorised use or the electronic communications system, as referred to in Article 13(1) of Directive 95/46/EC. To this end, Member States may, inter alia, adopt legislative measures providing for the retention of data for a limited period justified on the grounds laid down in this paragraph. All the measures referred to in this paragraph shall be in accordance with the general principles of Community law, including those referred to in Article 6(1) and (2) of the Treaty on European Union.” 27. Article 5 of the e-Privacy Directive requires that the confidentiality of communications be ensured except when access is legally authorised in accordance with Article 15(1). This permits legislation to restrict the scope of the rights otherwise protected by the Directive “when such restriction constitutes a necessary, appropriate and proportionate measure within a democratic society to safeguard national security (i.e. state security), defence, public security, and the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences or of unauthorised use of electronic communication system, as referred to in Article 13(1) of Directive 95/46/EC [the Data Retention Directive]. To this end, Member States may, inter alia, adopt legislative measures providing for the retention of data for a limited period justified on the grounds laid down in the paragraph.” The Data Retention Directive 28. Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC (“the Data Retention Directive”) sought to harmonise the communications data retention arrangements across the EU. 29. The need for an EU-wide approach arose from an increasing recognition by the Member States of the importance of communications data for the investigation, detection and prosecution of crime, coupled with the differences between national data retention regimes which were creating barriers to free movement of services in the internal market. These matters are recorded in the recitals to the Data Retention Directive: “(5) Several Member States have adopted legislation providing for the retention of data by service providers for the prevention, investigation, detection, and prosecution of criminal offences. Those national provisions vary considerably. (6) The legal and technical differences between national provisions concerning the retention of data for the purpose of prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences present obstacles to the internal market for electronic communications, since service providers are faced with different requirements regarding the types of traffic and