Appendix III
Reporting LLP
Legally privileged communications
The GCHQ Compliance Guide explains that the RIPA Interception of Communications Code
of Practice stipulates that greater regard should be had for privacy issues where the subject
of the interception might reasonably assume a high degree of privacy or where confidential
information is involved. This means that there are certain categories of communication
where a particular high threshold of proportionality must be applied to the release of the
content, because the content of the communication would ordinarily be considered
confidential (in the common sense of the word) or otherwise privileged. These categories
are:
-Legally privileged communications;
-Personal information held in confidence relating to physical or mental health;
-Personal information held in confidence relating to spiritual counselling:
-Confidential journalistic material;
-Confidential constituent information
Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) broadly falls into two categories.
-legal advice privilege which attaches to communications between a professional legal
adviser, acting as such, and their client where the communications are made confidentially
for the purpose of seeking or providing legal advice.
-litigation privilege which attaches to communications between the client and his legal
adviser or agent, or between one of them and a third party, if such communications come into
existence for the sole or dominant purpose of either seeking or providing legal advice with
regard to litigation or collecting evidence in respect of litigation. This second category is
wider than the first since it is possible for
litigation privilege to attach to communications other than those directly between a lawyer and
their client, i.e. privilege can attach to communications between a lawyer and a third party
where such communications are in connection with legal proceedings.
The concept of LPP applies to:
-
The content of communications that fall into one of the categories above, and
-
Exceptionally, some communications data (i.e. ‘events’ or the fact of a communication),
The purpose of LPP is to ensure that individuals are able to consult a lawyer in confidence
without fear that what passes between them will later be used against
them in court and it is therefore fundamental to the right to a fair trial and the rule of law.
Intelligence material subject to LPP cannot be released to a customer who may
be a party to any legal case to which the material relates, because this would give
that customer an unfair litigation advantage (it being a basic principle that litigants cannot be
required to reveal privileged material to either their opponents or the