2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
6.5.23 Dissemination. Section 15(2) in substance requires that the dissemination of
intercepted material is limited to the minimum that is necessary for authorised purposes.
The authorised purposes are those set out in section 15(4). The main such purpose is that
retaining the product of interception continues to be, or is likely to become, necessary for
one or more of the original statutory purposes. The restriction on dissemination applies
to the number of persons to whom, and the extent to which intercepted material or data
is disclosed; the extent to which it is copied and the number of copies made. Copies that
are made and retained have to be secure (section 15(5)). These restrictions have to be
considered with section 19, which (in very short summary) imposes very strict duties of
secrecy about matters relating to interception and provides criminal sanctions for breach
of those duties.
6.5.24 These restrictions on dissemination provide a strong protection against any
real intrusion into privacy where for instance lawfully intercepted material, unavoidably
obtained, is read or listened to by an analyst and immediately discarded as irrelevant.
6.5.25 Destruction. Section 15(3) is important. It provides that each copy made of any
intercepted material or related communications data is destroyed no later than when there
are no longer grounds for retaining it as necessary for any of the authorised purposes.
This has the effect of reducing substantially any risk that the product of interception
might be used indiscriminately for anything other than an authorised purpose. The
requirement to comply with section 15(3) is at the heart of our Retention, Storage and
Destruction investigation described in paragraphs 3.48 to 3.57 of this report.
6.5.26 The section 8(1) element of RIPA 2000 Part I remains, in my view, fit for purpose in
the developing internet age. It works just as properly for internet communications where
the identifier to be included in the schedule to the warrant is a known internet identifier
as it does for more traditional telephony communication.
Section 8(4) Interception warrants
6.5.27 The section 8(4) statutory system has recently given rise to understandable
concern.
6.5.28 Statutory structure. It is first necessary to explain the difficult relevant statutory
structure. I shall attempt to do this as clearly as I may. For clarity, the forms of expression
will in part be mine, not necessarily those in the statute.
6.5.29 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
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