CHAPTER 8: COMPARISONS – INTERNATIONAL
(b)
Judicial or prosecutor: Belgium, Cyprus, Netherlands;
(c)
Public prosecutor alone: Italy, Hungary;
(d)
Public prosecutor or police: Latvia, Slovakia;
(e)
Police authorisation: Ireland; Poland;
(f)
Senior official in Ministry of Interior: France.
Oversight
8.50.
Various published documents purport to compare the oversight regimes of different
states:
(a)
A Report produced by the University of Durham and the Parliament of Norway
in 2005, with summary table comparing the position in eight countries.17
(b)
Annex B to the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee's CounterTerrorism Report, which sets out the comparative oversight frameworks in the
UK and the US.18
(c)
A document from the New Zealand Parliament, comparing the oversight
regimes in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Norway.19
(d)
Annex 1 to a 2013 report of the European Parliament on mass surveillance,
comparing the legal position in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the
Netherlands.20
8.51.
A brief review of the Five Eyes partners demonstrates that they have all established
at least some element of oversight by the legislature, as well as scrutiny by a
Commissioner or Inspector-General.
8.52.
Both the Australian and New Zealand Inspectors General have a broad mandate with
a strong investigatory function.
8.53.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Review Committee [SIRC] combines both
parliamentary and external review within one entity. The members of the Committee
are parliamentarians, but much of the practical day-to-day operational work is carried
out by the employees of SIRC. The appointed members only meet on a small number
of days per year. CSE is overseen by a special Commissioner, a retired judge, who
reports on the interceptions granted by the Minister on an annual basis.
8.54.
As well as a permanent select committee on intelligence in both Houses of Congress,
the United States has a variety of oversight mechanisms. The Privacy and Civil
17
18
19
20
H. Born and I. Leigh, Making Intelligence Accountable, (2005) accessible at:
http://www.dcaf.ch/Publications/Making-Intelligence-Accountable.
17th Report of Session 2013-14, HC231 (May 2014).
New Zealand Parliament, “External oversight of intelligence agencies”, May 2013.
European Parliament Directorate-General for Internal Policies, “National programmes for mass
surveillance of personal data in EU Member States and their compatibility with EU law”, 2013.
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