Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Annual Report 2019
Breakdown of the use of powers throughout 2019
19.8
The charts included in this chapter are intended to demonstrate trends in the use of
investigatory powers across the authorities we oversee. These charts have been produced
to enable year-on-year comparison.
Covert human intelligence sources (CHIS)
19.9
Our predecessor organisation (the Office of Surveillance Commissioners) tracked the use
of CHIS by law enforcement, local authorities and public authorities over the past decade.
There has been a steady decline in the use of CHIS which we believe reflects the changing
shape of investigations and the commitment by forces to use the most appropriate and
least intrusive method of investigation. Whilst the number of CHIS authorisations fell
slightly in 2019, we expect the number of authorisations for CHIS to remain around the
current level over the coming years.
Figure 28: Covert human intelligence sources of law enforcement agencies, public
and local authorities, 2017 – 201961
3,000
2,500
123
124
2,000
1,500
91
2,651
1,958
1,000
1,866
Public and Local
Authorities
Law Enforcement
Agencies
500
0
2017 (Annualised
Figure)
2018
2019
Relevant sources
19.10
Undercover officers are known legally as relevant sources62 and applications are authorised
within the force or public authority for 12 months. A renewal must be authorised by
a Judicial Commissioner (JC). At the nine-month point, the authority must notify the
Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) of their intention to renew that authorisation if
and when it reaches the 12-month point; upon this notification one of our Inspectors will
carry out a review of the operation to date and their report will be available both to the
Authorising Officer (AO) and the JC. Such notification is not a guarantee that the authority
will still actually seek to renew but, if they choose not to, then the authorisation must be
cancelled. We continue to see that most authorisations are cancelled within the first year.
61 Note that the key on this table in the 2018 Annual Report is mis-coloured such that the graph misleadingly
suggests that a high number of applications were made by public and local authorities.
62 As defined by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Relevant Sources)
Order 2013.
141