2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
6.3.3 My predecessors’ annual reports have generally been in terms which broadly
gave a clean bill of health, subject to points of detail, to the relevant activities of the
public authorities which were the subject of their review. A sceptical reader might say
or think - and some did - that parts of these reports have been bland, uncritical and
lacking in corroborative detail. I have attempted to give in this report as much relevant
detail as statutory constraints permit. It is for others to judge the extent to which this
is sufficient for public purposes. The investigations which have supported this report
have been thorough and penetrating and I have no hesitation in challenging the public
authorities wherever this has been necessary.
6.3.4 This report is entirely and without qualification the product of my own independent
judgment. It is based on information obtained independently by me or my office. I do
not set out or intend to defend, protect or promote the public authorities. If, in my
judgment, any of their activities are unlawful or disproportionate, I am obliged to say so
in this report and would do so without hesitation. To the extent that this report is in fact
supportive, that is because I have been properly satisfied that their activities are lawful
and proportionate.
4. Should the Interception of Communications Commissioner be more
open in communicating with the public?8
6.4.1 I think this is difficult. In the second part of 2013, I declined to make any public
comment on Snowden or other matters relating to my statutory functions including a
number of requests for media interviews. I detected a degree of frustration in some
quarters that I was not prepared to make earlier statements or comments about matters
of the kind now contained in this report. The reasons for this were as follows:
6.4.2 Statutory function. My statutory function and obligation is to make reports to
the Prime Minister. Technically it is his decision what, if any, parts of my report should be
published by laying before Parliament. It is difficult, in my view, to publish material which
should be in a report to the Prime Minister in advance of such a report.
6.4.3 Complications and sensitivity. The whole subject matter with which my office
is concerned is complicated and sensitive. Fully understanding it all requires a period of
mature experience and reflection, and there was a real risk during the whole of 2013 that
I might accidentally and from inexperience overstep the proper limits of sensitivity or
make inaccurate or incomplete public statements with off the cuff oral comments.
In addition, investigating a number of aspects of Snowden related matters has required
a great deal of substantial work by me, my office and the interception agencies. The
product of this appears in this report. There are parts of this report which I could not
have written in the summer or autumn of 2013. There are still areas of review that I regard
to be work in progress and I will report on these when I have satisfied myself that a full
investigation has been completed, and not before.
8 See House of Commons Hansard Debates for 31 October 2013 at Col 380WH.
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