8
IPCO Annual Report 2018
New and emerging technologies
It is essential that all public authorities are able to understand and, when appropriate, deploy the
relevant new and developing technologies, against the background of proper guidance and regulation.
On inspections, we focus particularly on how new and emerging technologies are used, ensuring they
offer lawful and viable options for investigation. A number of these new techniques have the added
bonus of helping to reduce inappropriate collateral intrusion. This is a complicated arena because the
statutory framework is not always best framed to cope with these often rapid changes. For example,
we have been involved in detailed discussions about the use of automatic facial recognition (AFR, also
known as live facial recognition (LFR)) technologies during the last year. AFR is a surveillance tool, the
use of which by both public authorities and other bodies (such as corporate organisations which are
outside IPCO’s statutory oversight) has seen a growth and which has, in 2019, been the subject of
litigation and independent review by the Information Commissioner. This is a paradigm example of why
Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) needs to formulate a clear position as to which of these new and
emerging techniques should be deployed, and how this is to occur, to ensure their use is lawful, not
least by way of proper regulation and oversight. I am aware that this is a complicated problem that HMG
is working to address but it is critical that the relevant authorities are “ahead of the game”, anticipating
and providing for these changes rather than simply responding to the inevitable and expensive legal
challenges that will follow a lack of substantive and properly formulated regulation.
OCDA
As this is my last official opportunity, I wish to pay tribute to the way in which the Office for
Communications Data Authorisations (OCDA) has been established. OCDA commenced work in 2019
and will, as a result, feature materially for the first time in next year’s annual report, but much of the
preparation for the new office was completed in 2018. As with IPCO, OCDA is the responsibility of
the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and we were faced with many of the same accommodation,
resourcing and logistical challenges that we resolved with the creation of IPCO. The work of those
involved in establishing this new office was exemplary, and OCDA is now fully and successfully
operational.
Moving On
I write this as I prepare to leave the post of Investigatory Powers Commissioner. It has been an
enormous privilege to be the first IPC and I regret my early departure. However, the pull of the full-time
judiciary, and particularly my new role as Vice-President of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), was
too strong to resist. I would, however, like to take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude
to everyone who provided such a high-level of assistance during my tenure as IPC. I shall never forget
nor cease to be impressed by the levels of professionalism and dedication I have witnessed in this
critical and sensitive area of our public life. It is a testament to the success of IPCO and OCDA, and to
the many outside bodies and individuals who helped in their creation, that they have been established
successfully within very short timeframes, and – as unwaveringly reported to me – they have not had an
adverse impact on the operational agility of any of the public bodies who are entitled to seek to exercise
investigatory powers.
I am relieved to leave both organisations in the undoubted safe pair of hands of Sir Brian Leveson. I have
no doubt that he will bring his own particular vigour and probing intellect to the role. I wish him every
success in his new endeavour.
Sir Adrian Fulford