the geographical requirements for intelligence collection set out in the National
Security Strategy”, and considered that their importance to MI6 was likely to
increase.235
8.5.
GCHQ told the ISC that it considered BPDs to be an increasingly important
investigative tool, which it used primarily to “enrich” information that it had
obtained through other means.236
8.6.
I was briefed by Lynne Owens, Director General of the NCA, in relation to a
specific respect in which a hypothesis regarding the behaviour of persons
involved in child sexual exploitation was tested and rebutted by the use of
intelligence from bilk data retained and used by the SIAs (cf. A8/10). That
intelligence resulted in a marked and productive change in the way that crime of
that kind is investigated. More generally, the NCA characterised bulk data as
offering “a different and unique intelligence picture, not obtainable through other
means”.
Scale of use
8.7.
The Government claims that BPDs are used by the SIAs “on a daily basis, in
combination with other capabilities, right across the security and intelligence
agencies’ operations”.237
8.8.
I was told that:
(a) All investigative staff and analysts at MI5 have access to BPDs (though
some of the datasets are restricted to analysts only).
(b) Around 80% of people working on intelligence operations in MI6 have
access to BPDs.
(c) Around 10% of those working on intelligence operations at GCHQ have
access to BPDs.
8.9.
The IsComm reports on the procedures by which BPDs are selected for use by
the SIAs (3.18 above), but has not quantified the use made of BPDs by the SIAs.
Case studies (Annex 11)
8.10.
235
236
237
MI6 provided the Review team with 24 case studies in the form of brief
summaries. The open version of one of these studies had already been made
public as part of the Operational Case. A further five had been provided privately
GCHQ considered that the importance of BPDs to its operations would remain the same:
Annex 7.
2015 ISC Report, para 153.
Ibid., 10.3.
112