6. ASSESSMENT: BULK ACQUISITION
Claimed utility
6.1.
Cathryn McGahey QC and I inspected a good deal of classified material relating
to the utility of the bulk acquisition power, which has been used since at least
2001 by GCHQ and since 2005 by MI5.213 This material includes the most recent
letter to the Secretary of State in which MI5 sought continued authorisation to
use the capability (June 2016), which was supported by case studies and in
which bulk acquisition was said to provide “a broad spectrum of intelligence, with
greater precision, speed, and often with less intrusion than other tools and
techniques”.
6.2.
The Operational Case describes access to bulk communications data as
“essential to the security and intelligence agencies in pursuing their
investigations”, and puts the case for the bulk acquisition power as follows (at
9.3):
“Bulk communications data enables the security and intelligence agencies to
identify and investigate potential threats in complex and fast-moving
investigations. It allows the security and intelligence agencies to conduct
more sophisticated analysis, by ‘joining the dots’ between individuals involved
in planning attacks, often working from fragments of intelligence obtained
about potential attacks:
6.3.
213
•
Carefully directed searches of bulk communications data in complex
investigations and operations can identify frequent contact between
subjects of interest and their associates, including potential attack
planning activity.
•
Identifying those links between individuals or groups can help to direct
where a warrant for more intrusive acquisition of data, such as
interception, is needed.
•
Bulk communications data allows searches to be conducted for traces
of activity by previously unknown suspects who surface in the course
of an investigation, helping to identify further potential threats that
require investigation.”
Anticipating the counter-argument that there is an adequate alternative in the
power to address requests to CSPs who will themselves have retained similar
communications data pursuant to Part 4 of the Bill (currently DRIPA 2014), the
Operational Case claims for the bulk acquisition power (at 9.4-9.6) the triple
advantages of:
See further 2.29-2.45 above.
92