Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
7(1)(b)).
6.7
In practice four Secretaries of State and one Scottish Minister consider most of
the interception warrants. They are:
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the Defence Secretary;
the Foreign Secretary;
the Home Secretary;
the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; and
the Cabinet Secretary for Justice for Scotland20.
6.8
Each Secretary of State has Senior Officials and staff in their warrant granting
department (WGD) whose functions include scrutinising warrant applications for their
form, content and sufficiency, and presenting them to the Secretary of State with
appropriate suggestions.
6.9
Statutory necessity purposes. The Secretary of State may not issue an
interception warrant unless he or she believes that it is necessary:
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in the interests of national security;
for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime21;
for the purpose, in circumstances appearing to the Secretary of State to be
relevant to the interests of national security22, of safeguarding the economic
well-being of the United Kingdom; or
for the purpose in circumstances equivalent to those in which the Secretary
of State would issue a serious crime warrant of implementing an international
mutual assistance agreement (section 5(3)).
6.10 These statutory purposes and the requirement of necessity come directly from
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). To issue an interception
warrant for any other purpose would be unlawful. It is part of my function to make sure
that all warrants are issued for these statutory purposes only.
6.11 Proportionality. The Secretary of State may not issue an interception warrant
unless he or she believes that the conduct authorised by the warrant is proportionate to
what is sought to be achieved by that conduct.
20 Interception warrants to prevent or detect serious crime may be authorised by Scottish Ministers, under
the Scotland Act 1998. In this report references to the “Secretary of State” should be read as including
Scottish Ministers where appropriate. The functions of the Scottish Ministers also cover renewal and
cancellation arrangements.
21 Section 81(3) of RIPA 2000 defines “serious crime” as a crime for which an adult first-time offender could
reasonably expect a sentence of three years’ custody or more, or which involves the use of violence,
substantial financial gain or conduct by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose.
22 As amended by Section 3 of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) 2014.
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