2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
discovered. (Paragraphs 6.13 & 6.17 of the Code of Practice). The error report must
include details of the error and;
•
•
•
explain how the error occurred,
indicate whether any unintended collateral intrusion has taken place,
provide an indication of what steps have been, or will be, taken to ensure that
a similar error does not reoccur.
4.48 The total number of communications data errors reported to my office in
2013 was 869. In addition a further 101 were identified during the inspections by our
inspectors making 970 reportable errors in all. Some of the 101 errors had already been
identified by the public authorities, but had been wrongly classified as recordable errors
and our inspectors picked these up when reviewing the public authorities recordable
errors register. For example, in some instances the public authorities had noticed and
corrected a mistake with the telephone number prior to serving the requirement on
the CSP, but had failed to go back to the DP to seek approval for the new number.
Technically this data was not acquired fully in accordance with the law as the DP had
not given authority for the final communications address. However it was clear in these
cases that the DP had approved the necessity and proportionality case. Others had
not been identified or realised by the public authorities themselves and this was why
they had not been reported before the inspectors identified them. 61 of the 101 errors
stemmed from just three applications that were examined during the inspections.
Figure 11 Breakdown of Errors by Cause and Responsible Party
DP did not approve
acquistion 13.2%
other responsible party
& cause 0.4%
incorrect type
of data 0.4%
incorrect date /
time period 18.7%
csp other 1.9%
DP
13.2%
excess data 1.5%
incorrect time /
date period 3.8%
incorrect comms
address 4.8%
applicant incorrect
type of data 0.3%
incorrect date /
time period 4%
Key
inner pie = responsible party
outer ring = cause
CSP
12.5%
SPoC
44.1%
incorrect
comms
address
13.6%
applicant
29.8%
incorrect
communications
address 25.5%
incorrect
type of
data 11.8%
SPoC incorrect CSP 0.1%
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