2013 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
Section 2
My Role
2.1
I was appointed as Commissioner in January 2013.
It necessarily took me some time to become familiar with
the details of RIPA 2000 Part I and its Codes of Practice and
with the procedures which these require. I also needed
to get to grips with the various technical operations
and systems which the public authorities undertake or
use. I ventured conversationally at the outset that this
familiarisation and education process might take me up
to a year. In the round, so it has proved.
2.2
My principal powers and duties are in section
57(2) of RIPA 2000. They relate mainly to RIPA 2000 Part
I (sections 1 to 25).
The Rt Hon. Sir Anthony May
RIPA Part I
2.3
RIPA 2000 Part I divides into two Chapters.
•
•
Chapter I (sections 1 to 20) concerns the interception of the content of
communications and the obtaining of related communications data.
Chapter II (sections 21 to 25) concerns the acquisition and disclosure of
communications data. Communications data do not embrace the content of
the communication.
Interception of content
2.4
Section 1(1) of RIPA 2000 makes it an offence for a person intentionally
and without lawful authority to intercept, at any place in the United Kingdom, any
communication in the course of its transmission by means of a public postal service or
public telecommunication system. My statutory role concerns interception within the
United Kingdom.
2.5
Interception Warrants. The main source of lawful authority to intercept the
content of a communication is a warrant issued by a Secretary of State under section 5 of
RIPA 20002. There are detailed requirements for these warrants. There are also detailed
restrictions and safeguards on the use that may lawfully be made of the product of lawful
interception of communications. Importantly, section 15(3) requires the destruction of
intercepted material and any related communications data (as defined in section 20)
as soon as there are no longer any grounds for retaining it as necessary for any of the
purposes authorised in section 15, which embrace the statutory purposes in section 5(3).
2 See section 1(5) of RIPA 2000 for other sources of lawful authority.
2