LIBERTY AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
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(c) so monitors transmissions made by wireless telegraphy to or from apparatus
comprised in the system,
as to make some of all of the contents of the communication available, while being
transmitted, to a person other than the sender or intended recipient of the
communication.”
38. Section 5(2) of the 2000 Act provides that the Secretary of State
shall not issue an interception warrant unless he believes that the warrant is
necessary, inter alia, in the interests of national security, for the purpose of
preventing or detecting serious crime or for the purpose of safeguarding the
economic well-being of the United Kingdom and that the conduct
authorised by the warrant is proportionate to what is sought to be achieved
by that conduct.
39. In addition to the general safeguards specified in section 15 of the
Act, section 16 provides additional safeguards in the case of certificated
warrants (namely warrants for interception of external communications
supported by a certificate). In particular, section 16(1) provides that
intercepted material is to be read, looked at or listened to by the persons to
whom it becomes available by virtue of the warrant to the extent only that it
has been certified as material the examination of which is necessary for one
of the above purposes and falls within subsection (2). Intercepted material
falls within subsection (2) so far only as it is selected to be read, looked at
or listened to otherwise than according to a factor which is referable to an
individual who is known to be for the time being in the British Isles and has
as its purpose, or one of its purposes, the identification of material in
communications sent by that person, or intended for him.
40. In its Ruling of 9 December 2004 (see paragraphs 13-15 above), the
IPT set out the following extracts from the Interception of Communications
Code of Practice issued pursuant to s. 71 of the 2000 Act (“the Code of
Practice”). Subparagraph 4(2) of the Code of Practice deals with the
application for a s. 8(1) warrant as follows :
“An application for a warrant is made to the Secretary of State . . . Each application,
a copy of which must be retained by the applicant, should contain the following
information :
• Background to the operation in question.
• Person or premises to which the application relates (and how the person or
premises feature in the operation) .
• Description of the communications to be intercepted, details of communications
service provider(s) and an assessment of the feasibility of the interception operation
where this is relevant.
• Description of the conduct to be authorised as considered necessary in order to
carry out the interception, where appropriate.