court in a given piece of litigation). However, communications made with the intention of
furthering a criminal purpose (whether the lawyer is acting unwittingly or culpably)
are unlikely to be protected by LPP. For more details contact the Disclosure Policy team.
The judgment as to whether it is necessary and proportionate to include information subject to
LPP in the release of intelligence material by GCHQ must take account of the particular
sensitivity of such information and any associated risks. It is likely that any release of material
protected by LPP that is deemed both necessary [and] proportionate will be to a more limited
readership limited and possibly more highly classified than would otherwise be the case. The
judgment of necessity and proportionality in these cases is reserved to Mission Policy, and all
reporting containing anything that you believe may be covered by LPP must be submitted for
checking. For the sake of simplicity, in order to ensure that all intelligence material containing
potentially LPP information is submitted and assessed, reports featuring the following types of
intelligence must be submitted for checking before issue:
-
Content and/or communications data (‘events’) relating to (including instances where a
target has been in contact with) lawyers, legal advisers, solicitors, attorneys, or any other
member of the legal profession, or content that includes legal advice, regardless of the
profession of the communicant.
The sensitivity of reporting LPP information is not mitigated by disguising or removing the
identity or occupation of the communicant. But neither is there a ‘ban’ on identifying or
reporting such material – it may well be necessary and proportionate to report such information
to certain circumstances. The checking process is designed to determine this. If Mission
Policy considers it proportionate in a particular case to release intelligence based on
communications that attract legal privilege, the reporter will be instructed to apply the
following rubric to the report:
This report contains material that may be subject to legal professional privilege, and onward
dissemination/Action On is not to be taken without reverting to GCHQ.