Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
Inquiry into whether there is significant institutional overuse of Chapter II
of Part I RIPA 2000 powers by police forces and law enforcement agencies
7.59 In my 2013 Annual Report I raised a question of concern about whether there
might be significant institutional overuse of the powers. I was concerned 514,608 notices
and authorisations was, at face value, a very large number, and accordingly asked my
inspectors to investigate. On the basis that police forces and law enforcement agencies
account for nearly 90% of notices and authorisations I was in particular interested in
whether criminal investigations generally are now conducted with such automatic resort
to communications data that applications are made and justified as necessary and
proportionate, when more emphasis is placed on advancing the investigations with the
requirements of privacy unduly subordinated. The total number of authorisations and
notices for 2014 (517,236) is similar to the 2013 figure and the police forces and law
enforcement agencies again account for nearly 90% of the usage.
7.60 I made the point that I did not consider that this matter could properly be
scrutinised by looking only at individual requests, which, taken alone, may be entirely
justified, and that it would be necessary to take a broader view of institutional assumptions
and use. Accordingly, in 2014 my inspectors undertook a number of operational reviews
as part of their normal inspection regime. These are discussed in greater detail below.
7.61 My office required all of the larger volume communications data users being
inspected to provide the details of all operations within the previous 12 months where
more than 10 applications for communications data were submitted. The inspectors
selected one or two operations at random within each public authority to review in
detail and assess whether the acquisition of the data was as a whole a proportionate
response. They undertook the reviews by examining all of the applications relating to
the operation, associated documents such as communications data strategies, case
summaries, policy logs and analytical reports. They then conducted interviews with key
staff (e.g. the senior investigating officer, applicant, the lead investigator, analyst etc) to
explore further whether the data requirement was a proportionate response and test
whether the material was used for the stated or intended purpose and whether the actual
interference was proportionate to the aim.
7.62 In 2014 my office scrutinised 54 operations as part of this inquiry. Those 54
operations submitted 2600 applications between them, an average of 48 applications per
operation. A breakdown of the types of investigations examined is provided in Figure 12.
7.63 Overall, 80% of the data acquired in these operations related to suspects. 6%
related to victims, 3% to witnesses and the remaining 11% to associates of the suspect
or victim where it was to be determined if they were themselves suspects or witnesses.
7.64 The inspectors found that in each operation the communications data requirement
was, overall, necessary and proportionate to the matter under investigation and no
evidence of significant institutional overuse was found. However, in about a quarter of
the operations the inspectors had to seek further information from the investigating
officers or applicants to satisfy themselves that this was the case. This was principally
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