CHAPTER 15: RECOMMENDATIONS
Authorisations
General
50.
Public authorities with relevant criminal enforcement powers should in principle be
able to acquire communications data. It should not be assumed that the public
interest is served by reducing the number of bodies with such powers, unless there
are bodies which have no use for them. There should be a mechanism for removing
public authorities (or categories of public authorities) which no longer need the
powers, and for adding those which need them.
51.
The issue of which (if any) categories of communications data should be unavailable
to certain public authorities should be reviewed, in the light of Recommendation 12
above and any revision of procedures for authorisation and review. (Some examples
of the potential value to local authorities of what is currently known as traffic data are
at Annex 16 to this report.)
52.
The grounds on which communications data may be acquired should remain as set
out in RIPA s22(2), subject to any limitation (relating, for example, to the need for
crime to exceed a certain threshold of seriousness, which would not necessarily need
to be set at the same level as in RIPA s81(2)(b)) that may be required by EU law or
the ECHR.
53.
Communications data should be acquired only after the grant by a DP of an
authorisation. Details of the authorisation should be served on a CSP where it
appears to the DP that the CSP is or may be in possession of, or capable of obtaining,
any communications data. The distinction between an authorisation and a notice
(RIPA s22) is unnecessary and should be abandoned.
54.
The application for an authorisation should set out the matters specified in the
Acquisition and Disclosure of Communications Data Code of Practice (March 2015)
3.5-3.6.
55.
An authorisation should be granted only if the DP is satisfied, having taken the advice
of the SPoC and considered all the matters specified in the application, that it is
necessary and proportionate to do so.
Designated person
56.
DPs should be persons of the requisite rank or position with the requesting public
authority or another public authority. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers
(Communications Data) Order 2010 should be revised after consultation in the light
of:
(a)
Recommendation 12 above;
(b)
the comments of IOCCO (December 2014 submission to the Review, 3.3) on
the appropriate rank of DPs and the need for consistency across public
authorities and in relation to comparable methods of surveillance; and
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