CHAPTER 13: PRINCIPLES
(c)
Trust between strangers and within communities itself depends on assurance
that the state will afford proper protection both to security and privacy.6
(d)
Law enforcement and intelligence need clear boundaries, together with
confidence that they will not be censured for acting within them and that their
secrets will be protected.7
(e)
Service providers (particularly the overseas providers whose cooperation is so
necessary) crave the trust of their customers, and can earn it only by assuring
them that their data will only be released in accordance with a visible legal
framework and on ethical and independently controlled grounds.8
(f)
Foreign governments (like the UK Government) need to know that data they
choose to share is subject to proper safeguards.9
(g)
People across the globe crave secure means of communication, and need to
know that the UK can be trusted to comply in full with internationally recognised
standards.10
13.4.
Trust in powerful institutions depends not only on those institutions behaving
themselves (though that is an essential prerequisite), but on there being mechanisms
to verify that they have done so. Such mechanisms are particularly challenging to
achieve in the national security field, where potential conflicts between state power
and civil liberties are acute, suspicion rife and yet information tightly rationed.
13.5.
30 years ago, it might have been enough to appoint as independent reviewer (or
Commissioner):
“a person whose reputation would lend authority to his conclusions, because
some of the information that led him to his conclusions would not be
published”.11
Respected independent regulators continue to play a vital and distinguished role. But
in an age where trust depends on verification rather than reputation, trust by proxy is
not enough. Hence the importance of clear law, fair procedures, rights compliance
and transparency: not just fashionable buzz-words, but the necessary foundation for
the trust between government and governed upon which the existence of coercive
and intrusive powers depends in a modern democracy.
13.6.
With the need to promote trust in mind, I have formulated my recommendations on
the basis of the following principles: minimise no-go areas, limited powers, rights
6
3.8(b) (security) and 2.11 (privacy) above.
9.91(a), 9.101 and 10.14 above.
11.4-11.9 above.
R (Binyam Mohamed) v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs [2010] EWCA 65.
1.9 and 10.20 above.
Lord Elton, Hansard HL vol 449 cols 405-406 (8 March 1984). That remark from the Home Office
Minister related to the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, but similar considerations no
doubt prompted the creation of the Interception Commissioner in the following year.
7
8
9
10
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