CHAPTER 15: RECOMMENDATIONS
General
111.
112.
Within the necessary constraints of security:
(a)
ISIC should be public-facing, transparent and open to diverse ideas (including
from all sectors of the community in all parts of the UK, from other countries,
from international institutions and from young people who have grown up
online).
(b)
It should be willing to draw on expertise from the worlds of intelligence,
computer science, technology, academia, law and the NGO sector, and should
engage with and support compliance officers and compliance mechanisms
within public authorities, DPs and SPoCs.
(c)
As much as possible of its output (including, within the constraints of national
security, any guidance that it may issue) should be published on a user-friendly
website.
(d)
Commissioners and staff should attend and participate in conferences, invite
dialogue, assist the conduct of research and be alert to the adoption and
dissemination of international best practice.
(e)
ISIC should make itself accessible to traditional media, and have an active
social media presence.
ISIC should be sufficiently resourced to enable it to perform functions which are more
extensive than those performed by the almost 40 full-time and part-time current
Commissioners and staff.
Investigatory Powers Tribunal
Access to the IPT
113.
The jurisdiction of the IPT should be expanded (or clarified) to cover circumstances
where it is a CSP rather than a public authority which was at fault (for example, by
intercepting the wrong communications address and/or disclosing the wrong
communications data).
114.
There should be a right of appeal to an appropriate court from rulings of the IPT, on
points of law only, permission being required in the normal way from either the IPT
or the appellate court (cf. ISC Report, Recommendation LL).
115.
The IPT (which is chaired by a High Court Judge or Lord Justice of Appeal) should
be given the same power as the High Court to make a declaration of incompatibility
under HRA 1998 s4, particularly (but not exclusively) should Recommendation 114
not be adopted.
116.
The IPT should have the resources it needs to operate in a practical and expeditious
manner. Those resources should be independent of those allocated to ISIC and the
ISC, whose conduct may from time to time be in issue before the IPT.
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