2011 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
Only a few of these public authorities are permitted to acquire traffic data under Section 21(4)
(a), with the majority only authorised to acquire subscriber and service use data under Sections
21(4)(c) and (b) respectively.
By comparison with police forces and law enforcement agencies, these ‘other’ public authorities
make very limited use of their powers to acquire communications data. During the period
covered by this report 23 of these public authorities notified me that they had made use of their
powers to acquire communications data and between them they made a total of 3,443 requests,
an increase of 16% on the previous year. However to put this figure in context, it represents just
0.7% of all communications data requests submitted by public authorities. During the course of
the reporting year inspections were carried out at 14 of these public authorities. Table 3 lists the
public authorities who reported using their powers in 2011.
“During the period covered by this report 23 ‘other’ public authorities notified
me that they had made use of their powers to acquire communications data and
between them they made 3,443 requests.”
Table 3 – All ‘other’ public authorities who reported using their powers in 2011.
Not Inspected in 2011
Inspected in 2011
•
Department for Transport - Rail Accident
Investigation Branch.
•
Gambling Commission.
•
Department of the Environment (Northern
Ireland).
•
Department of Health – Medicines and
Healthcare (Products Regulatory Agency).
•
Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs.
•
National Offender Management Service.
•
Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
•
Environment Agency.
•
Royal Mail.
•
Department for Transport - Marine Accident
Investigation Branch.
•
Health & Safety Executive.
•
Office of Fair Trading.
•
Maritime & Coastguard Agency.
•
Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
•
Child Maintenance & Enforcement
Commission.
•
Serious Fraud Office.
•
Information Commissioner’s Office.
•
NHS Counter Fraud & Security Management
Service.
•
Office of Communications.
•
Department of Business, Innovation & Skills.
•
Department of Enterprise, Trade and
Investment – (Northern Ireland) Trading
Standards Service.
•
Independent Police Complaints Commission.
•
Criminal Cases Review Commission (inspected
but did not use their powers in 2011).
•
Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Once again the largest user by far was the Financial Services Authority who made 2325 of the
3443 requests (approx 68%). 43% of the 23 public authorities who reported using their powers
made less than 20 requests in the reporting period. Figure 13 illustrates that 62% of the 3443
46