Rules that force internet companies to keep details of every email sent in the UK are being criticised.

From March, information on the amount of messages delivered will be kept for a year.

The content of individual emails will not be held but the timing and number of each communication are and security experts say it is an attack on privacy and a waste of money.

The law is being implemented as part an EC directive, and the Government will reportedly have to pay the internet service providers (ISP) more than £25 million to ensure the law is obeyed.

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Dr Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge's computer lab, said the costs of the regulation could have been better spent.

"There's going to be a record of every single email which arrived addressed to you and all the emails you sent out via your ISP. That of course includes all the spam," he said.