Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
Annex B: Total Applications, Notices & Authorisations
for each Public Authority under Chapter II of Part I RIPA 2000
This Annex details the Total Applications approved, RIPA 2000 section 22(3) Authorisations granted or section 22(4) Notices given
during 2014 by individual Public Authorities, excluding those given orally. It is organised according to public authority type*.
A total of 267,373 applications and 517,236 Notices and Authorisations (excluding urgent oral) were granted /given
under Chapter II of Part I RIPA 2000 by 172 public authorities in 2014.
*Caveat: The main report has highlighted the fact that the statistics we are currently able to collect under Paragraph 6.5 of the
Communications Data Code of Practice are flawed and potentially misleading. This annex details the number of Applications made,
Authorisations granted and Notices given for communications data by individual public authorities. Authorisations and Notices
are the method by which public authorities make requests for communications data. There are essentially 2 difficulties with the
Authorisation and Notice statistics:
• Some public authorities may request multiple items of data on one authorisation or notice
• There are a number of different workflow systems in use by public authorities which have different counting mechanisms for
authorisations and notices.
It should also be noted that an Application for communications data may contain a request for one item of data or many items of
data, and some public authorities require applicants to submit different applications for different types of communications data.
Because of the variability between applications and the inconsistent counting and aggregation of data requests on a single
authorisation and notice the statistics, although accurately recorded by each individual public authority, are not necessarily
comparable.
Total Applications
Total Notices & Authorisations
The Intelligence Services
GCHQ
The Secret Intelligence Service (Mi6)
The Security Service (Mi5)
1,291
298
39,815
1,291
652
48,639
Grand Total
41,404
50,582
90
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