Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Annual Report 2019
4.10
A lot of work has been focussed on developing strong working relationships with
stakeholders during OCDA’s first year. Prior to each transition from the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), to the IPA, this followed a structured path of
engagement, and this has continued into business as usual. In addition to attendance
at various communications data (CD) national forums and conferences, OCDA held a
national stakeholder event in September 2019 to consolidate those relationships and
reflect on performance in the first six months of live operations. Independence is key to
OCDA’s working model but building and maintaining professional working relationships
with requesting authorities is necessary to make the authorisation process as efficient as
possible and to make sure requestors have a strong understanding of the requirements
imposed on them under the Act. OCDA will continue to prioritise engagement with
requesting authorities and stakeholders involved in reviewing and issuing policy and
guidance throughout 2020.
International engagement
4.11
As mentioned above our discussions with other international oversight bodies can be
limited by matters such as our different remits and laws. However, these conversations are
crucial to IPCO in helping us develop our ways of working and understanding where future
challenges might arise.
Europe
4.12
We therefore attend a number of international conferences and engagements in Europe
each year. For example, our Inspectors support the work of the European Union Agency
for Fundamental Rights, specifically assisting the Head of Sector Information in the Society,
Privacy and Data Protection Freedoms and Justice Department of Austria.
4.13
In 2019 we continued to support the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), an independent
think tank that aims to inform how German politics can shape technological change. The
SNV hosts the European Intelligence Oversight Network (EION), a gathering of organisations
that together explore intelligence oversight and build good practice. IPCO Inspectors attend
EION meetings and, in 2019, they contributed to the EION research publication to explain
the role and process of oversight in a transparent, understandable format. Specifically,
Inspectors explained how they study data on their inspections, at times instructing agency
staff to extract the data so that it can be examined in more detail by IPCO.
United Nations
4.14
Aside from a meeting for European oversight bodies in March 2019, these events
predominantly took place in the latter half of the year. International partners came
together for numerous conferences and working groups including the United Nations
International Intelligence Oversight Forum (IIOF), which took place in London in October,
and the European Intelligence Oversight Conference (EIOC), hosted in the Netherlands
in December. With participants from governments, intelligence agencies, academics and
NGOs, the IIOF focused on the future of intelligence oversight worldwide while taking
account of fundamental human rights. In contrast, the EIOC is a forum solely for oversight
bodies; the focus this year was on intensifying cooperation while keeping up with the
advancement of technology.
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