with the legislation and the results from this year’s inspections are encouraging
and show steady progress.
Security and Intelligence Agencies
3.36 The intelligence agencies are subject to the same type of inspection
methodology and scrutiny as police forces and law enforcement agencies. For the
most part the work of the intelligence agencies is highly sensitive and secret, and
this limits what I can say about their inspections.
3.37 During the reporting year the Security Service, Secret Intelligence Service
and Government Communications Headquarters were all inspected by my Chief
Inspector and one of the Inspectors. They all emerged very well from the inspections
and the inspection team concluded they are achieving a good level of compliance
with the Act and Code of Practice. Of all the intelligence agencies the Security
Service is the largest user of communications data acquired under Part 1 Chapter
II of RIPA and it has a fully automated system to manage its requirements.
3.38 Communications data is used extensively by the intelligence agencies,
primarily to build up the intelligence picture about persons or groups of persons,
who pose a real threat to our national security. Given the nature of their work
it is perhaps unavoidable that there will be some degree of collateral intrusion
into the private lives of persons who have had contact with the subjects of their
investigations. However, this is recognised by the intelligence agencies from the
outset and the inspections have shown that it is being managed to the best of their
ability. The error rate of all the intelligence agencies is very low in comparison
with the number of requests which are processed for communications data.
Local Authorities
3.39 There are approximately 474 local authorities throughout the UK approved by
Parliament for the purpose of acquiring communications data, using the provisions
of the Act. No local authority has been given the power to intercept a telephone
call or any other form of communication during the course of its transmission.
Local authorities may acquire communications data for the purpose of preventing
and detecting crime or disorder although there are restrictions upon the types of
data which they may obtain. They do not have access to traffic data which would
enable them to identify the location from, or to which, a communication has been
transmitted.
3.40 Generally the trading standards services are the principal users of
communications data within local authorities although the environmental health
departments and housing benefit fraud investigators also occasionally make use
of the powers. Local authorities enforce numerous statutes and Councils use
communications data to identify criminals who persistently rip off consumers,
cheat the taxpayer, deal in counterfeit goods, and prey on the elderly and vulnerable.
The environmental health departments principally use communications data to
identify fly-tippers whose activities cause damage to the environment and cost the
taxpayers large sums to recover or otherwise deal with the waste.
3.41 Local authorities are required to adhere to the Code of Practice and requests
for communications data are approved at a senior level. In most cases this will
be the head of the trading standards service or the heads of the environmental
health departments or housing benefits sections although solicitors are also often
involved. The specialist staff, who process applications for communications data,
are not trained to the same standard as their counterparts in other public authorities
and this has caused difficulties for some local authorities, which have not been
able to attain the best possible level of compliance with the Code of Practice. I
am pleased to say that the Home Office and ACPO DCG have now stepped in
to provide more help to the local authorities to enable them to achieve a better
level of compliance with the legislation and I will say more about this later in the
report.
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