2012 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
Throughout my 2012 visits, as in previous years, I continued to be impressed by the quality,
fairness, dedication and commitment of the personnel carrying out this work. Irrespective of the
level of threat, officers continue to show an intimate knowledge of the legislation surrounding
lawful interception, how it applies to their specific areas of work, and they are keen to ensure
they comply with the legislation and appropriate safeguards. The risk of defective applications
being approved in my opinion remains very low due to the high level of scrutiny that is applied
to each authorisation as it crosses a number of desks in the corresponding Warrant Issuing
Department of State before reaching the relevant Secretary of State.
6.3 Lawful Interception Warrants
I am once again able to report a single figure comprising the total number of lawful interception
warrants signed by the Secretaries of State.
This figure fulfils the objective of enabling readers to discern the total pool of warrants from
which I select my samples for review during inspection visits whilst not disclosing sensitive
information, for example on the extent of coverage of any specific target that may be detrimental
to national security.
The total number of lawful intercept warrants issued in 2012 under Part I Chapter 1 of RIPA
was 3372. This represents a 16% increase on the number of lawful intercept warrants issued in
2011. I do not set out the number of warrants that are extant at the end of the year because for
present purposes that is unnecessary, and because to do so could provide hostile agencies with
information as to the interception capabilities of the UK which could be of value to them.
In relation to some agencies I see most, if not all of the warrants, but where the number of
warrants is large I have to select. I usually select operations rather than warrants. Often one
operation will generate a host of warrants and renewals. I have had the benefit of statistical
advice to satisfy myself that, even when the pool of warrants is large, the numbers that I examine
are statistically significant.
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