2011 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
The SPoC has an important responsibility under the Code of Practice to make sure the public
authority acts in an informed and lawful manner. In my last annual report I said that it is vitally
important for public authorities to have the right number of well trained staff in this business
area. I am therefore concerned that my inspectors found that 20% of the police force and law
enforcement agencies inspected in this reporting year had a lack of staff in their SPoC. These
authorities were experiencing serious backlogs in dealing with applications, and the systems
and processes were not being managed efficiently or effectively. There is a risk in these cases
that applicants will be hindered from achieving their investigative objectives because the data
is not getting to them quickly enough. The impact of this upon investigations is incalculable. My
inspectors have recommended that these police forces and law enforcement agencies should
take the necessary steps to ensure that they have sufficient trained staff.
“20% of the police force and law enforcement agencies inspected in this reporting
year had a lack of staff in their SPoC”
The urgent oral process is principally used to acquire communications data when there are
immediate threats to life, and usually this applies when vulnerable or suicidal persons are reported
missing, in connection with abduction or kidnap situations, or in relation to other crimes involving
serious violence. This is an important facility, particularly for police forces, and the interaction
between the SPoCs and the CSPs saves lives across the country on a continuous basis. Good use
is also being made of the urgent oral process where there is an exceptionally urgent operational
requirement, and where the data will directly assist the prevention or detection of a serious
crime, the making of arrests, or the seizure of illicit material. In the reporting year 35,109 requests
were orally approved which represents an increase on last year’s figure of 31,210. Again marked
improvements were found in the management of the urgent oral process and the quality of the
record keeping, with 90% of the police forces and law enforcement agencies now achieving a
good or satisfactory standard in this area, save for the errors I have already outlined.
During the reporting year some of the police forces have started to take advantage of the
collaboration provisions in the Policing and Crime Act 2009. This year inspections were
conducted in two regions where police forces had brigaded their SPoC resources. It is likely
that in the future more police forces will brigade their SPoC resources into a region and my
inspection timetable will reflect any such collaborative arrangements.
It is evident that police forces and law enforcement agencies are making good use of communications
data as a powerful investigative tool, primarily to prevent and detect crime and disorder. It
is also apparent that communications data plays a crucial role in the successful outcome of
prosecutions and often it is the primary reason why offenders plead guilty. SPoCs throughout
the UK continue to provide a valuable service to the investigation teams and often they make
a significant contribution to the successful outcome of operations. I would like to highlight two
examples of how communications data is used by police forces and law enforcement agencies
to investigate criminal offences as they may provide a better understanding of its importance to
criminal investigations. The following two examples are based on extracts from the inspector’s
reports.
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