2012 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
being completed to a good standard and the requests are necessary and proportionate. The DPs
are discharging their statutory duties responsibly and the SPoCs are ensuring the data is acquired
in a timely manner. GCHQ and SIS had updated and streamlined a number of their systems and
procedures in line with recommendations from their 2011 inspections. These changes reduced
unnecessary bureaucracy and improved the systems and processes for acquiring communications
data in these agencies.
7.5.3 Local Authorities
There are over 400 local authorities throughout the UK approved by Parliament to acquire
communications data under the provisions of the Act. They are restricted in relation to the
type of communications data they can obtain. They are permitted to acquire subscriber data or
service use data under Sections 21(4) (c) and (b) respectively, but they cannot acquire traffic
data under Section 21(4) (a). I believe the extent to which local authorities use communications
data should be placed in context and it is important to point out that local authorities may only
use their powers where they have a clear statutory duty and responsibility to conduct a criminal
investigation.
Generally the trading standards departments are the principal users of communications data
within local authorities, although the environmental health departments and housing benefit
fraud investigators also occasionally make use of the powers. Local authorities enforce numerous
statutes and use communications data to identify criminals who persistently rip off consumers,
cheat the taxpayer, deal in counterfeit goods, and prey on the elderly and vulnerable. The
environmental health departments principally use communications data to identify fly-tippers.
“Local authorities enforce numerous statutes and use communications data
to identify criminals who persistently rip off consumers, cheat the taxpayer,
deal in counterfeit goods, and prey on the elderly and vulnerable.”
By comparison with police forces and LEAs, local authorities make very limited use of their
powers to acquire communications data. During the period covered by this report 160 local
authorities notified me they had made use of their powers to acquire communications data, and
between them they made a total of 2605 requests. This is an increase from the previous year’s
figures (141 local authorities, 2130 requests).
To put this last figure into context, it represents less than 0.5 % of all communications data
requests submitted by public authorities. 73% of the 160 local authorities made less than 20
requests in the reporting period and 53% made less than 10 requests.These percentages are very
similar to those in the previous two reporting years.
“73% of the 160 local authorities [that made use of their powers] made less
than 20 requests and 53% made less than 10 requests”
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