the infrequent use which most Councils make of their powers sometimes makes
it difficult for relevant members of staff to keep abreast of developments in the
communications data community. I am pleased that the Home Office has provided
funding to the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) and it is able to provide a
national SPoC facility to all of its members. During the reporting year we have
encouraged local authorities to make use of the facility, as the accredited staff
at NAFN have been trained to the same standards as their counterparts in the
police. One of my Inspectors has already visited NAFN and the systems and
processes are being maintained to a good standard. Local authorities can use the
facility with confidence and in the full knowledge that the data will be obtained
in accordance with the law. Of course the Designated Person in the local authority
still has responsibility for approving the application for communications data but
the accredited staff in NAFN scrutinise it independently and this should weed out
any which are unnecessary or unjustified.
3.41 During the period covered by this report 131 local authorities notified
me that they had made use of their powers to acquire communications data,
and this is slightly more than last year. A total of 1,756 requests were made for
communications data and the vast majority were for basic subscriber information,
although 24 Councils reported that they had acquired some service use data under
Section 21(4)(b) of the Act. The total number of requests for communications data
is marginally above last year’s figure. Virtually all of the local authorities, which
have used their powers, have been inspected at least once since the legislation was
introduced. The core activities of the trading standards service and environmental
health teams are now centralised in a number of the larger local authorities and
therefore it is easier for them to manage the process of acquiring communications
data. My Inspectorate identified the largest users of communications data at an
early stage and they are inspected more regularly.
3.42 During the reporting year 31 inspections of local authorities were conducted.
Six of these were inspected for the first time, either because they had notified me
that they had started to make use of their powers, or because they were acquiring
communications data on a more frequent basis. Twenty one of the local authorities
were inspected for a second time and the remaining four were inspected for the
third time. Seventeen of the local authorities which were inspected had made use of
service use data and generally the Inspectors were satisfied that it was necessary to
obtain it and it was proportionate to the investigative objectives. However, one of
the local authorities was criticised for obtaining this type of data before carrying
out checks to identify the relevant subscribers. At that stage in the process there
was no information or intelligence to indicate whether the telephone numbers or
their subscribers were associated with criminal or illicit activity and potentially
they could have been innocent members of the public who were in contact with the
suspect for perfectly legitimate reasons. Changes have been made to the working
practices of the local authority concerned, and they will ensure that service use
data is acquired correctly in future. I will give some examples of how the local
authorities use communications data later in this section of the report.
3.43 I am aware that some sections of the media continue to be very critical of
local authorities, and there are allegations that they often use the powers which
are conferred upon them under RIPA inappropriately. However, I can state that
no evidence has emerged from the inspections, which indicates communications
data is being used to investigate offences of a trivial nature, such as dog
fouling or littering. On the contrary it is evident that good use is being made of
communications data to investigate the types of offences which cause harm to the
public and to which I have already alluded in paragraph 3.40 above.
3.44 Twenty three of the local authorities had achieved good or better standards and
the remaining eight were satisfactory. It was good to see that the recommendations
from the previous inspections had always been fully implemented and where
necessary improvements had been made to the systems and processes. My
Inspectors found two instances of local authorities obtaining incoming call records,
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