Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (c. 25)
Part 3 — Authorisations for obtaining communications data
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
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which internet communications service is being used, and when
and how it is being used, by a person or apparatus whose
identity is already known,
where or when a person or apparatus whose identity is already
known is obtaining access to, or running, a computer file or
computer program which wholly or mainly involves making
available, or acquiring, material whose possession is a crime, or
which internet service is being used, and when and how it is
being used, by a person or apparatus whose identity is already
known.
(6)
In subsection (5) “other relevant crime” means crime which is not serious crime
but where the offence, or one of the offences, which is or would be constituted
by the conduct concerned is—
(a) an offence for which an individual who has reached the age of 18 (or, in
relation to Scotland or Northern Ireland, 21) is capable of being
sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 12 months or more
(disregarding any enactment prohibiting or restricting the
imprisonment of individuals who have no previous convictions), or
(b) an offence—
(i) by a person who is not an individual, or
(ii) which involves, as an integral part of it, the sending of a
communication or a breach of a person’s privacy.
(7)
In this Act “internet connection record” means communications data which—
(a) may be used to identify, or assist in identifying, a telecommunications
service to which a communication is transmitted by means of a
telecommunication system for the purpose of obtaining access to, or
running, a computer file or computer program, and
(b) comprises data generated or processed by a telecommunications
operator in the process of supplying the telecommunications service to
the sender of the communication (whether or not a person).
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Additional restrictions on grant of authorisations
(1)
A designated senior officer may not grant an authorisation for the purposes of
a specific investigation or a specific operation if the officer is working on that
investigation or operation.
(2)
But, if the designated senior officer considers that there are exceptional
circumstances which mean that subsection (1) should not apply in a particular
case, that subsection does not apply in that case.
(3)
Examples of exceptional circumstances include—
(a) an imminent threat to life or another emergency,
(b) the investigation or operation concerned is one where there is an
exceptional need, in the interests of national security, to keep
knowledge of it to a minimum,
(c) there is an opportunity to obtain information where—
(i) the opportunity is rare,
(ii) the time to act is short, and
(iii) the need to obtain the information is significant and in the
interests of national security, or