CHAPTER 14: EXPLANATIONS
was implicitly acknowledged when RIPA (progressively, by international standards)
did not incorporate citizenship-based distinctions.
14.91. I have left open the question of what “rigorous and rights-compliant procedures”
should apply for the purposes of authorising access to (1) content obtained under a
bulk warrant and not relating to persons in the UK and (2) communications data
obtained under a bulk warrant: Recommendation 80, and cf. Recommendation 76
above.
Intercept as evidence
14.92. As recorded at 9.16-9.18 above and in Recommendation 81, it is not the function of
this Review to second-guess or to reinforce the eight reviews (some of them extremely
detailed) which have, since 1993, failed to recommend that intercepted material be
rendered admissible as evidence in court.
14.93. I do however recommend that consideration should be given to extending the already
substantial list of exceptions from this rule to include the Parole Commissioners and
Sentence Review Commissioners, both in Northern Ireland. There would be a
possible benefit in terms of public safety: these bodies consider prisoner licence cases
and have the ability to consider classified material in closed proceedings on the issue
of whether persons convicted of serious offences remain a threat to the public.
Allowing intercept to be admitted as evidence before them could enable the recall to
prison of ex-prisoners on licence in respect of whom the evidence of continuing threat
to the community comes from intercepted communications.
OVERSIGHT AND REVIEW (Recommendations 82-121)
Independent Surveillance and Intelligence Commission
14.94. Recommendations 82-112 concern the proposed new Independent Surveillance and
Intelligence Commission (ISIC), which would be a well-resourced and outward-facing
regulator both of all those involved in the exercise of surveillance powers and of the
security and intelligence agencies more generally.
14.95. ISIC would merge the existing functions of its three predecessor Commissioners
(including those only recently announced: bulk personal data and TA 1984 s94) and
take on, in addition:
(a)
the audit and inspection functions referred to in Recommendations 91-93;
(b)
the warrant-issuing powers currently vested in the Secretary of State, to be
exercised only by Judicial Commissioners who must hold or have held high
judicial office, or Assistant Judicial Commissioners who have themselves held
judicial office (Recommendations 84-88), and after hearing submissions from
independent standing counsel where necessary (Recommendation 110(c));
(c)
a new power to authorise communications data requests which are novel or
contentious or which are made for the purpose of determining matters that are
privileged or confidential (Recommendation 84(e)); and
280