Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
Section 3
Transparency and Accountability
3.1
My half-yearly reports, my office’s appearances before the various parliamentary
select committees, our additional reports, other publications and public engagements
seek to provide the public and Parliament with greater understanding, evidence and
assurance of my role and the way in which interception and communications data powers
are being used by public authorities and the safeguards in place. My last report had, for
the first time, no confidential annex and sought to bring a rigorous and independent
assessment of the matters my office oversees, especially given the public concern in the
aftermath of the Snowden-related media reports.
3.2
I do not presently regard that simply reporting annually, or indeed half-yearly,
provides the public with sufficient information about the work we are engaged in.
Understandably, there is significant public concern at present about the privacy
implications of public authorities’ use of these intrusive powers, the capabilities that
the public authorities might require, the adequacy of the existing legislation and, the
effectiveness of the oversight. This may change in future but in the meantime it is
important for my office to continue to engage publicly, in so far as it is possible to in
addition to carrying out our statutory function, to help inform the various debates and
reviews.
3.3
The comments in our last two annual reports and our recent written submission to
the Investigatory Powers Review8 set out the need for enhanced and accurate statistical
requirements to bring clarification as to the volumes and types of communications data
acquired by public authorities. We are pleased that the Home Office has taken on board
our recommendations in this respect and have included enhanced statistical requirements
in the revised code of practice9 accompanying Chapter II of Part I RIPA 2000. These new
requirements will go some way to improving transparency. That said, the new statistical
requirements will need to be explained in a way that makes them easy to interpret and
meaningful so as to contribute towards improved accountability.
3.4
Since the publication of my last report my office has been delighted to accept
invitations to speak publicly about our role at numerous events including;
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the International Communications Data and Digital Forensics Conference;
the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) event hosted by Bird & Bird;
the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) Annual Summit;
the Wilton Park ‘Privacy, security and intelligence in the digital age’ conference;
Matrix Chambers’ event about the legality of state surveillance post-Snowden;
the Oxford Intelligence Group’s - Snowden, the media and the state event;
the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference, and,
the Scottish Public Law Group Surveillance event.
8 http://www.iocco-uk.info/docs/IOCCO%20Evidence%20for%20the%20Investigatory%20Powers%20
Review.pdf
9 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/communications-data-draft-codes-of-practiceacquisition-disclosure-and-retention
www.iocco-uk.info
9