2012 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
Figure 7 – Number of Notices / Authorisations for Communications Data in the
Previous 5 Year Period
580000
560000
540000
520000
500000
480000
460000
440000
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
The statistics my office have collated show that 16 public authorities increased their requests
for communications data on the previous year. The following explanations for the increase in
demand have been provided by some of these public authorities; increase in training / awareness
of applicants to request data; a number of large scale investigations; more internet data requests;
more complex requests requiring notices / authorisations to be served on more than one CSP.
The increase is also unsurprising considering the fact that the UK hosted the Olympic and
Paralympic Games in 2012 and that communications data supported a number of operations
undertaken to ensure the Games were safe.
The total number of applications is currently not reported to my office in the annual statistics as it
is not a requirement of the record keeping provisions in the Code of Practice. An application will
often result in more than one notice or authorisation being issued/granted, therefore the number
of applications submitted will be less that the number of notices and authorisations. Conversely
the number of individual items of data requested is likely to be higher than the number of notices
and authorisations as multiple items of data may be requested on one authorisation or notice.
The number of applications and the number of individual items of data requested would be
useful figures to collect in future. It would also be useful to be able to determine the statutory
purpose under which each request was made (i.e. in the interests of national security etc). The
vast majority of the requests are made for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of
preventing disorder. My Chief Inspector has been engaging with the Home Office to discuss
how the record keeping and statistical requirements outlined in the Code of Practice might be
amended in future to require more comprehensive statistics.
Figure 8 illustrates the breakdown of the communications data requests by type. Over half of the
requests for communications data in the reporting year were for subscriber data under Section
21(4) (c), usually in the form of enquiries to ascertain the ownership of mobile phones.There has
been no significant change to the percentage of requests for service use and traffic data, but the
percentage of requests for ‘combinations’ of data have fallen by 7%.
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