Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Annual Report 2019
Retention of items subject to legal professional privilege
3.6
A total of 98 applications were made to IPCO in relation to the retention of LPP material. Of
those, 97 were approved.
Figure 1: Number of requests submitted and approved for LPP material in 2018
and 2019
120
98
100
80
77
97
76
60
2018
2019
40
20
0
LPP retention requests submitted
LPP retention requests approved
Confidential journalistic material and sources of journalistic information
3.7
Confidential journalistic material and sources of journalistic information are also subject
to specific safeguards to respect the freedom of the press. All applications made under
the IPA and RIPA set out whether it is the purpose of the application to obtain confidential
journalistic material or to identify sources of journalistic material and whether it is likely
that such material will be obtained. Freedom of expression is protected under Article 10
of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and we would expect all relevant
applications to consider the necessity and proportionality of any request in that context.
3.8
Our inspections have not identified any concerns in relation to the handling of any
journalistic confidential material or material relating to journalistic sources. The casework
flagged to us, and identified in this report, as relating to journalists can be split into
three broad categories: those that relate to a journalist, those that relate to confidential
journalistic material, and those that relate to journalistic sources.
3.9
The first of these is by far the most common, and it includes any communications data
request that relates to a journalist. These requests are subject to an independent decision
by the Office for Communications Data Authorisations (OCDA) and are not subject to JC
review. We have continued to find that in the majority of cases the applications in this
category relate to circumstances where a journalist has been a victim of crime which
is under investigation, for example where a journalist has reported being the subject
of harassment, and the police will make a request to capture their communications
data records as evidence of this. Because of the safeguards in relation to this sensitive
profession, we review a high proportion of this casework at our communications data
inspections to ensure that the relevant considerations are well documented. In general, we
have found this to be the case.
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