8
IPCO Annual Report 2017
2. IPA Implementation and the
Establishment of IPCO
2.1
I was appointed the first Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) on 27 February 2017.
My immediate focus was on setting up the office – the ‘Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s
Office’ or ‘IPCO’ – and recruiting Judicial Commissioners, Inspectors and the diverse other
members of staff needed for us to operate effectively. IPCO did not come into existence until
1 September 2017 when I inherited all the oversight powers and responsibilities of the three
precursor bodies, the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners (OSC), the Interception of
Communications Commissioner’s Office (IOCCO) and the Intelligence Service Commissioner
(ISComm) I also took on substantial additional responsibilities, the principal of which is the
‘double-lock’ function (as explained hereafter). This report focuses on the oversight carried
out during 2017 and, as set out above, unavoidably covers a period of eight months before
I took over responsibility. Naturally there will be variation in how the three different bodies
carried out their duties and recorded their findings and, as a consequence, there is some
unevenness in what I am able to address in this Report. There is inevitably reference to some
events that have taken place during 2018.
2.2
In this chapter I seek to set out the decisions we have taken to establish IPCO, and the
principles that have guided them.
Guiding principles
2.3
There are five principles underpinning the decisions I have taken, and the plans and
processes that have been put in place, which I believe are vital to effective oversight.
These principles are:
• Independence: everyone who works at IPCO must be fearlessly independent, unstintingly
fair in their approach and beyond reproach as regards their integrity, ethics and honesty.
• The law: IPCO has a clearly defined statutory role given to us by Parliament. We must
discharge that function rigorously and impartially, wherever that leads us.
• Transparency: in the post-Snowden world, the security and law enforcement agencies can
no longer expect to work in the shadows, in the sense that material which can properly be
made public should be widely available for scrutiny.
• Engagement: we should engage with all those who have a legitimate interest in what we
do, including the NGOs, civil society and academics.
• Security: I will strive to ensure that my office is not the source of the improper disclosure
of any secret or personal information.