Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Annual Report 2019
Communications data (CD) errors: law enforcement agencies (LEAs),
public authorities and prisons
18.26
The IPA (section 231(9)) specifies that only a public authority may cause a relevant error.
This would exclude an error resulting from mistakes made by a TO, despite the possibility of
data being obtained and acted upon in good faith by the public authority. The Home Office
is therefore considering revising the definition of relevant error in the CD CoP to clarify
the point at which errors occur and the actions required to be taken by a public authority
or a TO. We currently seek to investigate errors of either origin. However, the absence of
provisions for TO errors under section 231(1) of the IPA means that the IPC will not make
a determination in relation to informing a person of a serious error for those errors. An
example of this is Error Investigation 10 in Annex C.
Definition: determination
A determination usually implies the conclusion of a dispute by the rendering of a final decision.
Reportable and recordable errors
18.27
There are two categories of error for CD: recordable and reportable (see paragraphs 18.11
and 12.48 respectively). Errors can occur when an approved application for targeted CD
is initiated, or a notice served on a TO, which results in the acquisition of incorrect data
or would have resulted in incorrect data if it had not been identified. We expect the
authorities we oversee to be tracking both types of error to identify and rectify common
themes and prevent future mistakes. The appropriate Senior Responsible Officer (SRO)
must have sight of error reports to enable any necessary strategic changes to policy or
procedures. There is no obligation for authorities to notify the IPC of recordable errors and
so these are not tracked in our annual statistics.
18.28
In 2019, 1,063 CD errors were reported to the Commissioner by authorities we oversee
(see tables 4 and 5 and Figure 27). We investigated each error and re-categorised 52 of
those as recordable, making a total of 1,011 reportable errors. This is an overall increase
of 108 errors over 2018, or nearly 12%. Looking further, the detail shows that whilst the
number of errors reported by law enforcement and public authorities has remained steady,
there has been a marked increase (103) in the number of TO errors.
18.29
There is an ever increasing need to acquire CD from overseas TOs. In 2018 the number
of reportable errors emanating from overseas TOs was 25, but in 2019 this number had
risen to 72. In 38 of these cases incorrect data (16) or data for the wrong period (22) was
supplied. Errors emanating from overseas TO data led to three serious error investigations
(Annex C, cases 10, 13 and 14).
18.30
The NCA has well established links with TOs and can therefore react to issues of data
quality. As requests to overseas TOs grow, it is the responsibility of every investigator and
single point of contact (SPoC) to check and challenge the data that they are supplied. In
2019 this check and challenge process led to the NCA approaching two overseas TOs. In
subsequent meetings with IPCO and the Knowledge Engagement Team (KET) who provide
guidance and support from the Home Office for the CD SPoC Community, briefings were
produced for the benefit of all relevant public authorities. The ability to react quickly in
both cases meant that no serious errors occurred, which was a most welcome outcome.
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