Such requirements, if made law, would be under the scope of the Investigatory Powers Act which contains provisions for removal of encryption, the BBC reported.

The proposals were contained in a draft technical paper that was leaked to the civil liberties group, Open Rights Group.

The document was leaked on 4 May and the consultation on its contents is meant to end on 19 May.

Under the Investigatory Powers Act, which was passed in 2016 and that legalises a range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services, telecommunications companies would have to meet any demands made in secret.

Simultaneous surveillance could occur in bulk, but be limited to one in every 10,000 users of a given service.

The paper also makes note of the fact that technology companies would have to remove - or enable the removal - of encryption so that communications could be provided "in an intelligible form" without "electronic protection".

The British government has been pushing for back-doors in software and common apps; for example, after the recent UK terrorist incident, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd demanded that all encrypted messaging apps allow intelligence agencies access to content when they demanded.