IPCO Annual Report 2018
13. Local authorities
Overview
13.1
Our work with local authorities differs from that with other public bodies and law
enforcement because of the infrequent use of powers. While there is little risk of any
large-scale abuse, which we work to prevent through our oversight of more regular and
bulk users, there is a substantially higher risk of inadvertent unlawful activity. At local
councils, workers are routinely engaged in activities which look into the lives of the public,
increasingly via social media interactions. This means that part of our role is to ensure that
these everyday interactions are appropriate and are compliant with the legal framework.
For this reason, we carry out a dual function with regard to local authorities: first,
inspecting the recorded use of covert powers and, secondly, investigating the culture and
practice across the organisation to establish a level of confidence that any who need to use
covert powers would be recognised by staff and would be properly authorised.
13.2
In 2018 we conducted:
• 90 local authority inspections, 35 on site and 54 remotely (in once instance, a remote
inspection was followed up by a visit);
• 1 extraordinary inspection where we had previously noted poor compliance; and
• 5 Fire and Rescue Services inspections, 4 on site and 1 remotely.
In 2018, 42 local authority inspections were postponed until 2019 due to a scarcity of
Inspector resources while the focus was on transitioning to the Investigatory Powers Act
2016 (IPA). We are increasing this work again during 2019 and hope to get back on schedule
by 2020.
13.3
In recent years, our inspections at Fire and Rescue Services have confirmed that they are
not using covert powers. This reflects a change in the nature of their work and collaborative
approach with other organisations which renders it unnecessary for Fire and Rescue
Services to use these powers. We do not expect this to change in the future. The Home
Office is currently reviewing whether it would be appropriate to revoke their inclusion
on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) schedule, effectively removing
those powers. Until this issue is resolved, or we are notified of a change in practice, the
Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) has decided that we will not conduct further
inspections of Fire and Rescue Services.
Findings
13.4
We have continued to see a decline in the use of covert powers by local authorities. At one
end, we inspected one council which had approved 56 directed surveillance authorisations
and 26 Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) authorisations in the period between
their previous inspection and the 2018 inspection. However, at most there had been no
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