4. CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING UTILITY
4.1.
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the methodology by which I have sought
to evaluate the operational case for the powers under review.
Framework for evaluating outcomes
4.2.
The first issue is to identify a class of beneficial outcomes against which the
utility of the bulk powers can be measured.
4.3.
It will always be relevant to know whether an operation has achieved a tangible
beneficial result, such as a conviction or a disruption. But there is a danger that
by focusing only on what can be easily measured (arrests, convictions,
recruitment of agents) or easily understood (thwarting of a specific planned
attack, receipt of valuable information about the intentions of a foreign power),
the overall benefits of intelligence work can be understated.
4.4.
Anyone who knows intelligence work is aware that many of its benefits come at a
relatively early stage in any investigation or operation, before a specific crime is
in prospect or the police have become involved.
4.5.
A frame of reference is needed for the purposes of evaluating the utility or
otherwise of the powers under review. Such a framework is not provided by the
Operational Case, which categorises the purposes served by the powers under
review in ways which lack coherence and consistency.186
4.6.
I pointed this out to the SIAs at the outset of the Review, and asked them to
agree a classification against which their claims of utility could be evaluated.
They responded with a joint document (Annex 4) which sets out what they
described as “a high-level structured description both of the stages of security
and intelligence work and the specific activities undertaken within those stages”.
4.7.
The three stages of security and intelligence work to which bulk data is said be
relevant (though they are not followed in a strictly linear way) were expressed in
that document as follows:
“IDENTIFY
This is the process by which initial ‘seed’ information is analysed and
developed to the point where it is clear that there is e.g. a potential terrorist
threat, a possible candidate for recruitment as an agent, or a source of
exploitable intelligence meeting current requirements. The initial ‘seed’
186
For example, the box on p. 17 presents six purposes for which access to bulk data is said to be
essential: but those categories overlap and do not always marry up with the examples given in
the specific chapters that follow. On pp. 24-25, two separate classifications of “Operational
Purposes” are given.
72