Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
Figure 13 2014 Breakdown of Errors by Cause
DP did not approve
acquistion 6.5%
DP incorrect
rank 0.2%
other party
& cause 0.9%
incorrect comms
address 11.9%
csp other 1.2%
incorrect date /
time period 16.9%
incorrect type
of data 0.4%
incorrect time /
date period 4%
incorrect comms
address 5.9%
excess data 2.8%
applicant
other 1.5%
DP
6.7%
SPoC
42.7%
CSP
14.3%
applicant
35.4%
incorrect
type of
data 12.9%
incorrect date /
time period 6.4%
incorrect
communications
address 27.5%
SPoC
other 1%
7.103 Whilst it is inevitable that humans will make mistakes my office has continued this
year to highlight where more can be done to reduce the number of human transposition
errors. For example, we have made a number of recommendations for public authorities
to implement measures to enable communications addresses to be copied and pasted
between different computer systems to reduce the instance of transposition errors. My
office reiterated the importance of this issue in a circular to all SROs in September 201448.
7.104 RIPA 2000 recognises that CSPs incur costs in complying with disclosure requests
from public authorities and allows for arrangements for making appropriate payments to
them to facilitate the timely disclosure of communications data. These arrangements are
outlined in more detail in the Acquisition and Disclosure of Communications Data code
of practice and may include funding to support bespoke disclosure systems, business
overheads, staffing etc. Any CSP seeking to recover appropriate contributions towards
its costs should make available to the Home Office such information or assurance as
the Home Office requires to provide assurance that the proposed cost recovery charges
represent an appropriate contribution towards the costs incurred by the CSP. Over recent
years there has been a drive to update, maintain, or make more efficient CSPs disclosure
processes and there are bespoke secure disclosure systems within some CSPs to manage
the disclosures. These were introduced to reduce the amount of double keying and
resultant human errors as well as to make more efficient CSPs disclosure processes.
48 http://www.iocco-uk.info/docs/ErrorsCirculartoSROs.pdf
www.iocco-uk.info
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