IPCO Annual Report 2017
The Directed Surveillance authorisations granted by the different types of public
authorities were as follows:
Public Authority Type
Law enforcement agencies
Local authorities
01/04/17–
31/12/17
‘Annualised
figure’
Extant on
31/12/17
4,492
5,989
822
233
310
15
0
0
0
933
1,244
130
Fire & Rescue Services [Independently
constituted from local authorities]
Other public authorities (e.g. govt regulators)
4.9
Based on ‘annualised’ figures, the number of law enforcement directed surveillance
authorisations has fallen to 5,989 compared to the 6,237 authorisations for the 2016-17
financial year (as reported by the OSC). This continues a long term decline in the number
of directed surveillance authorisations from the 20,000 per annum ten years ago. There
were 822 extant directed surveillance authorisations on 31/12/2017 compared to the 808
on 31/03/2017.
Fig. 4 Directed Surveillance Authorisations over the last 10 years (excluding UKIC)
2007-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
2012-2013
2013-2014
2014-2015
2015-2016
2016-2017
(annualised figure) 2017-
Non-LEA
LEA
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
4.10
The number of Local Authority and Other Public Authority authorisations remains broadly
similar to recent years. By a significant margin, the Department for Work & Pensions remains
the public body which authorises the most directed surveillance (792 of the 933 OPA
authorisations).
4.11
As can be seen from the table overleaf, Fire and Rescue authorities did not use surveillance
powers at all during this reporting period. Only 22% of local authorities and 42% of other public
authorities granted authorisations for directed surveillance during the reporting period.
4.12
Law Enforcement Agencies used the urgency provisions 700 times during the period 1 April
to 31 December 2017 (on an ‘annualised’ basis, 933 times). This is similar to previous years.
25