2012 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
Figure 15 – Recommendations from 2012 Local Authority Inspections
Red
4%
Green
51%
Amber
45%
This year 4% of the recommendations represented serious non-compliance with the Act and
Code of Practice. These red recommendations were made in relation to 7 separate local
authorities. 4 of these local authorities emerged poorly from their inspections overall. It should
be recognised that it was the first time that these four local authorities had been inspected.
I am pleased to report that two of these local authorities are now using the NAFN SPoC to
manage their communications data requests and the remaining two did not use their powers
at all in 2012. The red recommendations fell into two areas; DPs approvals and record keeping
requirements and will be covered later in this section.
The vast majority of the local authorities that were inspected during the reporting year were
completing their applications to a good or satisfactory standard. My inspectors did challenge the
justifications for acquiring the data in a very small number of cases as they were not satisfied
that the requests were necessary and / or proportionate based on the information contained in
them. During the inspections the investigations were discussed in more detail with the applicants
and / or DPs and in some instances the case files for the investigations were examined. From
this supplementary information the inspectors were satisfied that the requests were submitted
in relation to criminal offences which the public authority has a statutory duty to investigate and
that the objective justified the potential intrusion. However it is now an established principle
that an application for communications data should stand on its own and sufficient information
must be included to enable the DP to make a decision whether the request is necessary and
proportionate. 11 of the local authorities were not actually using the latest version of the Home
Office and ACPO DCG application form template and this explained why some of the salient
points were not covered. Amber recommendations were given to 14 of the local authorities to
assist the applicants to improve further the necessity and / or proportionality considerations in
their applications.
“My inspectors did challenge the justifications for acquiring the data in a
very small number of cases as they were not satisfied that the requests were
necessary and / or proportionate based on the information contained in
them.”
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