Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
11.13 On 11th November 2014 the Secretary of State for Justice, the Rt Hon. Chris
Grayling launched an independent investigation after it was identified that a number of
telephone calls between prisoners and their constituency MPs in England and Wales had
been intercepted and some of those calls had been listened to. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate
of Prisons (HMIP) was asked to investigate the circumstances, to make recommendations
to ensure that there were sufficient safeguards in place to minimise the risk of such calls
being recorded inappropriately in the future and, to ensure that sufficient safeguards are
in place for all confidential calls from prisoners. My office committed to fully support the
investigation and we have done so. On 18th November 2014 my office met with HMIP
to discuss the inquiry and provided their investigation team with a report outlining the
number of recommendations that my office has made in relation to the handling of legal
or otherwise confidential calls during our inspections of prisons. Although my inspectors
had not identified any breaches with regard to calls to MPs, a significant number of
recommendations had been made as a result of the inspectors identifying failures or areas
for improvement with regard to the procedures for protecting or handling legal calls. It
was noted that where such failings / issues had been identified, these recommendations
would also read across to ‘other’ confidential calls.
11.14 The first stage of HMIP’s inquiry was to undertake a review of the urgent, practical
steps which NOMS were taking to minimise the risk of recording or listening to calls
inappropriately in the future. A report54 was published in relation to this stage of the
inquiry on 28th November 2014. This report found that the urgent, interim measures
taken by NOMS had been largely, but not wholly, effective in ensuring that prisoners’
calls to MPs are not recorded or listened to. HMIP further reported that the technical
measures that had been taken were effective but depend on the accuracy of the data
that is inputted and so human error remained possible. The report outlined that it was
necessary to resolve further technical queries and that more needed to be done to
ensure that prisoners were aware of their responsibility to identify confidential numbers
to prison staff. The second stage of the inquiry, which is looking at the circumstances
around how the telephone calls came to be recorded in the past, has not yet reported.
My office remains committed to providing HMIP with any assistance that they require to
carry out their inquiry.
Inspection Regime
11.15 Objectives of Inspections. The primary objectives of our inspections are to
ensure that:
•
•
All interception is carried out lawfully and in accordance with the Human
Rights Act (HRA) and the Prison Rules made under the Prison Act 1952 or
section 13 of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland) 1953;
All prisons are fully discharging their responsibilities to inform the prisoners
that their communications may be subject to interception;
54 http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2014/12/OFFICIALSENSITIVE-Prison-communications-report-for-publication.pdf
www.iocco-uk.info
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