CHAPTER 12: CIVIL SOCIETY
(g)
Commissioners have only recently begun to deal with inquiries and reports into
alleged abuses, which form a vital part of effective oversight.
(h)
Commissioners, particularly the ISCommr, are inadequately resourced, and
should be bolstered with better resourcing, full-time operation, and greater
powers to call for evidence and question national security bodies.
12.87. A common suggestion regarding the above was that the functions of different
Commissioners should be merged, or at the very least their interaction should be
clarified. In particular, in relation to the latter point, Commissioners should be divided
either by the acts/functions of the public authorities in question (i.e. interception,
acquisition of communications data, targeted surveillance, etc) or by the bodies in
question (e.g. agencies, police, other public authorities), to avoid confusion.
Investigatory Powers Tribunal
12.88. During the course of the Review, the IPT had before it a number of major cases,
arising out of the Snowden documents and operations in Libya. It ruled for the first
time that the security and intelligence agencies had acted unlawfully (albeit only in the
past, and in a relatively technical respect), and appears to have been the catalyst for
significant disclosures and concessions by the Agencies. A respected commentator
wrote recently of “the reputation [it] is slowly building for itself”.103 While the voices
calling for its abolition appear muted, criticisms of the IPT remain, again regarding
both the institutional mechanisms and its operation.104 Some complained to me that:
103
104
105
106
(a)
The percentage of complaints upheld is very low105 in comparison to other
similar bodies.
(b)
It has insufficient technological expertise.
(c)
It is insufficiently transparent:
Most decisions are uninformative, and reached without a hearing;
Similarly, ordinarily no reasons are given for the refusal of cases;106
Without consent the Tribunal cannot even disclose the fact of a closed
hearing (see rules 9(4) and 6(2)-(3));
It cannot compel oral evidence at a hearing;
It must ensure that information is not disclosed if this would be contrary to
inter alia, the public interest, the economic well-being of the UK or the
J. Rozenberg, “Legal privilege and the conflicting interests of GCHQ and the IPT”, the Guardian website,
16 March 2015.
Further detail of some of these criticisms is provided by Open Rights Group and Liberty.
From the IPT website, Operation – Cases Upheld, http://www.ipt-uk.com/section.aspx?pageid=9.
See the IPT website, Operation- Determinations and non-determinations, http://www.iptuk.com/section.aspx?pageid=11.
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