CHAPTER 10: INTELLIGENCE
10.34. MI5 described itself as seeking not to expand its territory but to hold its ground:
“We are certainly not seeking ‘sweeping new powers’ or, when taken in the
round, an increase in levels of intrusion. But what we do require are powers,
approved by Parliament, which allow us to keep pace with the changes in
behaviour of our [subjects of interest] and in technology, in order to achieve
broadly similar levels of assurance against the national security threat we
face.”27
10.35. MI5 considers that, due to the proliferation of communications platforms and
techniques available to those it is investigating, it needs to use a wider range of
techniques more frequently to obtain comparable insight. Equipment interference, for
example, which may require both a property and an interception warrant, epitomises
that need. Access to bulk personal data sets is also becoming more important to its
investigative work.
10.36. MI5 has therefore suggested that there would be benefit in enabling the Secretary of
State to authorise under a single warrant all the intrusive techniques she is currently
permitted to authorise. Their powers would not extend beyond those which they have
currently, and all the interference authorised would need to be justified as necessary
and proportionate for the existing purposes. A single warrant would give the Secretary
of State and the Commissioners better oversight of the whole of an operation and the
intrusion involved, and enable decisions on the proportionality of the interference to
be taken in a more informed way. It would also make more efficient use of the
Secretary of State's time, and reduce repetition in the number of applications.
10.37. MI5 suggests that the safeguards and handling arrangements for the product of such
warranted operations should also be made consistent.
10.38. MI5 has also proposed that its use of thematic warrants (warrants against clearly
defined groupings of individuals who are all carrying out the same activity of concern)
be made subject to more explicit safeguards and that current internal policies and
safeguards already in place for such thematic warrants be formalised as part of the
law or in a Code of Practice. They suggest, furthermore, that their use of bulk personal
data sets should be formalised in the same way by introducing more formal published
safeguards in addition to the internal processes that already govern them.
10.39. MI5 has concerns that the current provisions for schedules to s8(1) warrants do not
reflect the dynamic nature of internet communications and add to the difficulty of being
specific as to which techniques and authorisations might be required. So, for
example, it envisages that a warrant might give authority to intercept a named
individual’s mobile phone communications, but would no longer need to have a
schedule which set out the phone number concerned, and would not therefore require
modification if the phone number were changed by the targeted individual.
27
Evidence to the Review, 17 February 2015.
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