142
Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Annual Report 2019
In 2019 we conducted 47 inspections for the renewal of relevant source authorisations with
respect to 87 relevant sources.
Figure 29: Relevant sources, 2015 – 2019 notifications, cancellations and renewals63
1,400
1,200
1,155
1,000
800
902
1,158
1,032
769
696
600
757
598
752
668
Notifications
Cancellations
Renewals
400
200
0
72
93
1 April 2015 - 1 April 2016 31 March 2016 31 March 2017
51
51
53
Annualised
for 2017
2018
2019
Directed surveillance
19.11
As noted in the previous chapters, directed surveillance is a critical investigative tactic for
the range of authorities that we oversee and is available to public and local authorities as
well as law enforcement. Directed surveillance has evolved in recent years to include online
tactics as well as traditional physical surveillance methods. There has been a slight fall in
the overall number of directed surveillance authorisations (DSAs) over the last year.64
63 Note that this figure was given incorrectly in Table 6 of our 2018 Annual Report. In 2018, 757 relevant
source applications were granted, 51 were renewed and 598 were cancelled.
64 Note that these figures were given incorrectly in our 2018 Annual Report. In 2018, Law enforcement and
Police were granted 5,627 directed surveillance authorisations, wider public authorities were granted
1,122, Prisons were granted 50, local authorities were granted 309 and the Ministry of Defence was granted
40 authorisations.