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IPCO Annual Report 2018
14.6
In addition to our standard approach to reports and recommendations, in 2018 we
gave prisons an overall grading which reflects the standard of the approach overall to
the management of investigatory powers, along with the establishment’s progress in
implementing previous recommendations. The ratings for this year were:
• 61% were good
• 26% were satisfactory
• 13% were poor.
14.7
The strategic responsibility for the management and delivery of covert tactics across the
HMPPS estate falls to the Executive Director for Security, Order and Counter Terrorism
(SOCT), who is also the HMPPS RIPA Senior Responsible Officer (SRO). This is the reason for
our annual inspection at HMPPS. HMPPS have initiated work to rectify weaknesses in their
intelligence management structures and processes, including the way authorised activity is
managed and monitored. Progress on this work has been slow but we anticipate significant
benefits to compliance across the estate as this work progresses. At the time of the most
recent inspections many of these changes were still in their early stages and therefore had
little or no impact on our findings.
14.8
We similarly conducted an inspection of the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS).
NIPS operate three establishments, one of which manages young offenders and female
prisoners. We were satisfied that NIPS had made improvements based on our previous
recommendations, in particular in relation to training.
14.9
The Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) and Dame Linda Dobbs met with the Cabinet
Secretary for Justice for Scotland to agree an approach for the statutory inspection process
of prison interception in Scotland. We agreed that inspections of Scottish detention
facilities will mirror the rest of the United Kingdom. Our previous inspections of the Scottish
Prison Service (SPS), which operates 15 establishments, focussed on directed surveillance
and the management of CHIS and our inspections have identified a strong cooperative
relationship between the SPS and Police Scotland. This enables a significant exchange of
intelligence to the benefit of both organisations. We are working with the SPS to establish
an appropriate inspection model, which will scrutinise the use of all investigatory powers in
the 15 Scottish prisons.
Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) and Surveillance
14.10
We noted a decrease in activities involving CHIS and surveillance techniques in 2018,
despite the increased presence of psychoactive drugs, illegally-held mobile phones and
other items in prisons. We believe that this reduction might be attributed to the use of
Prison Rule 50A, which allows for overt monitoring via CCTV, and the adoption of other
overt tactics. Conversely, this could be a result of outdated structures and processes and a
lack of confidence and understanding in staff, which is becoming an obstacle to legitimate
investigation within prisons. We discussed this question with HMPPS and intend to keep
this under review in 2019.