2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
3.43 I have expressed concern with a number of areas of the authorisation process,
for example, delays in the serving of the warrant instruments (and schedules) on the
Communication Service Providers (CSPs).
3.44 I regarded as unsatisfactory the fact that a number of the interception agencies
have to apply to renew their warrants excessively early. This results in significantly
shortened periods of authorisation. In some cases the applicants have to prepare their
renewals a number of weeks before they are due to enable them to be processed in time.
Serious crime warrants can only be authorised for a 3 month period. This means that an
applicant may have to submit renewal paperwork only a few weeks after the interception
was initially authorised. Understandably in some cases there has not been sufficient time
Figure 2 Interception Recommendations by Category
confidential privileged
material 5%
renewals 3%
other
8%
errors
8%
section 15/16
safeguards
42%
cancellations
9%
implementation
of warrants
10%
application
process
15%
to gain a detailed intelligence picture and as a result it can be hard to articulate the
benefit and justify the continuance. In addition renewing early causes the intervening
authorisation period to be lost and therefore warrants of this kind are frequently not in
force for the full 3 month period. A further consequence of early renewal is that warrants
are often subject to unnecessary renewals. This places a burden on the interception
agencies and the Secretary of State and a strain on the system. There is a strong practical
case for increasing the validity period for serious crime warrants to 6 months.
3.45 For some of the interception agencies I was not satisfied that all applications to
cancel warrants which were no longer necessary were being made promptly. There was
also a delay in effecting cancellations in one of the Secretary of State’s departments. The
second of these has been addressed. I have recommended that the agencies in question
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