2011 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
I outlined earlier in this report that a traffic light system (red, amber, green) has been adopted
for the recommendations that emanate from the inspections. This enables public authorities to
prioritise the areas where remedial action is necessary. This year 68 recommendations were
made by my inspectors during the ‘other’ public authority inspections and this is an average of
5 recommendations per public authority. Figure 15 shows the breakdown of recommendations
by colour.
Figure 15 – Recommendations from 2011 ‘Other’ Public Authority Inspections
Red
3%
Green
54%
Amber
43%
The majority of the recommendations were green and these were made to assist the public
authorities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their processes and reduce unnecessary
bureaucracy. The comments I have made in the preceding section of the report in relation to
ensuring that Section 22(4) Notices are formally issued by the DPs is equally pertinent to some
of these inspections and technical breaches were found in this aspect of the process in 7 of the
inspections.
“The majority of the recommendations were green and these were made to assist
the public authorities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their processes
and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy.”
The streamlining procedures outlined in Paragraphs 3.30 to 3.32 of the Code of Practice had
been misunderstood by one of the public authority’s inspected and as a result some of the data
that was acquired was not actually approved by a DP. It is important to make the point that these
errors had no bearing on the justifications for acquiring the data; nevertheless it is important
to ensure that data is always acquired in accordance with the law. A series of recommendations
were made to assist the public authority in this respect and I have received an assurance that
these have been achieved.
I would like to highlight one investigation undertaken by the Royal Mail where communications
data was used effectively. This may provide a better understanding of its importance to the
criminal investigations that these types of public authorities undertake.
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