2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
•
•
•
•
an explanation of the necessity for the interception;
a consideration of why the conduct is proportionate;
consideration of any unusual degree of collateral intrusion, not least if the
communications might be privileged; and
an assurance that all intercepted material will be handled in accordance
with the safeguards in section 15 of RIPA 2000.
3.21 Section 8(1) warrants have to comprise one or more schedules with details designed
to tell the relevant communication service provider (CSP) which communications they are
required to intercept (section 8(2)).
3.22 Section 8(4) interception warrants. Section 8(4) disapplies the provisions of
section 8(1) and 8(2) in certain circumstances. This means that a section 8(4) warrant does
not have to name or describe one person as the interception subject or a single set of
premises as the target of the interception.
3.23 Section 8(4) warrants are restricted to the interception of external communications.
External communications are communications sent or received outside of the British
Islands (see section 20).
3.24 Section 8(4) warrants should contain the details required by paragraph 5.2 of the
Code of Practice. I have for convenience described the statutory structure for section
8(4) warrants in further detail in Section 6 (Question 5) of this report to which I refer the
reader.
3.25 Safeguards. These apply to both types of interception warrants. Section 15(2)
strictly controls the dissemination of intercepted material. The section requires that
dissemination of intercepted material is limited to the minimum necessary for the
authorised purposes. All material (including related communications data) intercepted
under section 8(1) or 8(4) must be handled in accordance with safeguards which the
Secretary of State has approved under the duty imposed by RIPA 2000.
3.26 Section 15(3) requires that each copy of intercepted material and any related
communications data is destroyed as soon as there are no longer grounds for retaining
it as necessary for any of the authorised purposes.
3.27 There are additional safeguards for Section 8(4) warrants and these are described
in Section 6 (Question 5) of this report.
Statistics for Interception Warrants
3.28 Figure 1 shows the number of interception warrants authorised in each of the years
2011 - 2013 for the 9 relevant interception agencies. The total number of interception
warrants authorised during the calendar year 2013 was 2760. This is a reduction of 19%
8