Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
Points of Note
Communications Data
In 2014 267,373 applications for communications data were authorised and these
resulted in 517,236 authorisations and notices being issued or granted under
Chapter II of Part I RIPA 2000.
172 public authorities acquired data in 2014. 88.9% of the applications for
communications data were made by police forces and law enforcement agencies,
9.8% by the intelligence agencies and 1.3% by local authorities and other public
authorities (regulatory bodies with statutory functions to investigate criminal
offences and smaller bodies with niche functions).
In 2014 my office conducted 90 communications data inspections. This is higher than
l2013 because in 2014 my office moved to conduct annual inspections of the public
authorities that acquire larger volumes of communications data. An additional 102
local authorities were inspected during the inspection of the National Anti Fraud
Network (NAFN).
Our inspections are structured to ensure that key areas derived from Chapter II of
Part I RIPA 2000 and the code of practice are scrutinised. Our inspectors have full
access to the workflow systems used by public authorities and interrogate them.
In 2014 my office scrutinised at random approximately 13,000 applications and in
addition nearly 100,000 applications were subject to query based searches.
346 recommendations emanated from
recommendations for each public authority.
our
inspections,
on
average
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Last year my office conducted a number of additional inquiries into specific issues.
One of these inquiries looked into whether there is significant institutional overuse
of communications data powers by police forces and law enforcement agencies. My
office’s inquiry concluded that there is not. But my office did find that a proportion
of the applications did not adequately deal with the question of necessity or
proportionality and we found some examples where the powers had been used
improperly or where they had been used unnecessarily.
998 Chapter II of Part I RIPA 2000 communications data errors were reported to my
office in 2014. 84.8% were attributable to public authorities, 14.3% to Communication
Service Providers (CSPs) and 0.9% to other parties.
12 serious technical system errors were reported in 2014. Such errors can have
multiple consequences and result in a large number of erroneous disclosures. In
addition 9 human errors were also reported which had very serious consequences.
These 21 errors resulted in action being taken against the wrong individual (for
example, innocent individuals’ addresses being visited by officers, or a warrant
being executed at the wrong address) in 12 instances; and on 4 occasions caused
a delay in the police conducting welfare checks on persons in crisis. My next halfyearly report will concentrate on these 21 serious errors and provide full details in
relation to the investigations that my office has undertaken.
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