2011 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
9. DISCUSSING MY ROLE
I have taken the opportunity on a number of occasions this year to explain my role by delivering
speeches and making formal responses to consultations on intelligence oversight. It is my belief
that any speeches I make or interaction I have with international colleagues should focus on the
legislation underpinning the lawful interception of communications, how I conduct my oversight
role and, to the extent possible, my assessments of compliance at the public authorities I oversee.
9.1. Response to Green Paper
My response to the Government Justice and Security Green paper is reproduced in Annex
1. I conclude in that response that the current arrangements, with judicial and parliamentary
oversight of ministerial action, despite being an accident of history, appears to work satisfactorily.
Any reform of the system should not place undue additional burdens on the intelligence agencies,
and should seek to preserve the accountability of the Secretary of State to Parliament and the
electorate.
9.2. Meeting with the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC)
In March 2011 the current and former Intelligence Services Commissioners, the President of
the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and I met with members of the Intelligence and Security
Committee (ISC).The ISC was established by the Intelligence Services Act (1994) with a remit to
provide parliamentary scrutiny of the expenditure, administration and policies of the intelligence
agencies. Our meeting was not a formal evidence session, but we did have a useful exchange of
views about our roles and our assessments of compliance at public authorities, their relationships
with the agencies, levels of access to relevant intelligence, sampling of cases for review, and error
reporting. The session concluded with a substantive discussion on proposals for intelligence
oversight reform being outlined within the Justice and Security Green Paper.
9.3. Data Protection Forum
I accepted an invitation in December 2011 to speak to the Data Protection Forum on my
role as commissioner. The Data Protection Forum represents a group of industry professionals
involved in securing the protection of personal data held by government departments, private
companies and other entities. I spoke to the group about differences between communications
data and lawful intercept, my role as defined by RIPA, the role of my inspectors and the wider
office, the error reporting system in relation to lawful intercept and communications data,
my assessment of compliance by those whom I oversee and finally my interaction with the
Information Commissioner. I was grateful for the opportunity to share my views.
9.4. International delegations
I was pleased this year to receive international colleagues from both South Africa and Canada
in order to share views on differing models of intelligence oversight in our respective countries.
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