BIG BROTHER WATCH AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
access to the material was required, consistent with, and pursuant to
section 16 and the applicable certificate, and why such access was
proportionate. Inspections and audits showed that although the selection
procedure was carefully and conscientiously undertaken, it relied on the
professional judgment of analysts, their training and management oversight.
170. According to the report, 3007 interception warrants were issued in
2016 and five applications were refused by a Secretary of State. In the view
of the IC Commissioner, these figures did not capture the critical quality
assurance function initially carried out by the staff and lawyers within the
intercepting agency or the warrant-granting department (the warrantgranting departments were a source of independent advice to the Secretary
of State and performed pre-authorisation scrutiny of warrant applications
and renewals to ensure that they were (and remained) necessary and
proportionate). Based on his inspections, he was confident that the low
number of rejections reflected the careful consideration given to the use of
these powers.
171. A typical inspection of an interception agency included the
following:
a review of the action points or recommendations from the
previous inspection and their implementation;
an evaluation of the systems in place for the interception of
communications to ensure they were sufficient for the purposes of
Chapter 1 of Part 1 of RIPA and that all relevant records had been
kept;
the examination of selected interception applications to assess
whether they were necessary in the first instance and whether the
requests met the necessity and proportionality requirements;
interviews with case officers, analysts and/or linguists from
selected investigations or operations to assess whether the
interception and the justifications for acquiring all of the material
were proportionate;
the examination of any urgent oral approvals to check that the
process was justified and used appropriately;
a review of those cases where communications subject to legal
privilege or otherwise confidential information had been
intercepted and retained, and any cases where a lawyer was the
subject of an investigation;
a review of the adequacy of the safeguards and arrangements
under sections 15 and 16 of RIPA;
an investigation of the procedures in place for the retention,
storage and destruction of intercepted material and related
communications data; and
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