2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
Section 6
Questions of Concern
In this section I seek to consider some of the legitimate questions raised in relevant
public debate which fall within my statutory review responsibility. Some of this will repeat
information I have already provided earlier in this report, but I hope that this will for
completeness assist the reader.
1. Does the Interception of Communications Commissioner have full access
to all information from the public authorities sufficient for him to be able to
undertake his statutory functions?5
6.1.1 Yes. All those engaged in RIPA 2000 Part I matters have a statutory obligation
to disclose and provide to me all such documents and information as I may require for
the purpose of enabling me to carry out my statutory functions (section 58(1) – see also
section 18(9)).
6.1.2 This means that I have unrestricted access to full information, however sensitive,
about the activities I am required to review. I can report that I am in practice given such
unrestricted access and that all of my requests (of which there have been many) for
information and access to material or systems are responded to in full. I have encountered
no difficulty from any public authority or person in finding out anything that I consider to
be needed to enable me to perform my statutory functions. On the contrary, the public
authorities are keen that I should fully understand what I consider I need to know. They
frequently volunteer information which they consider I ought to know or which they think
would be useful.
2. Does the Interception of Communications Commissioner have sufficient
resources to perform his statutory functions fully? And does he do so
sufficiently for public purposes?
6.2.1 Under Section 57(7) of RIPA 2000, the Secretary of State is obliged to consult
with me and to make such technical facilities available to me and, subject to Treasury
approval as to numbers, to provide me with such staff as are sufficient to ensure that I am
able properly to carry out my functions. Subject to practicalities, I have encountered no
difficulty in securing agreement to the provision of some necessary additional resources,
although at the time of writing, I await progress on others.
6.2.2 The IOCCO staff and office. My office now comprises the Chief Inspector, 8
Inspectors and 2 office staff. Details of our budget and expenditure are given in Annex
C. There was a temporary reduction in the number of communications data and prison
inspections undertaken during the second part of 2013, because one inspector retired
during the year and the additional inspectors – see below – were not recruited or fully
trained until later in the year.
5 See House of Commons Hansard Debates for 31 October 2013 at Column 380WH
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