Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
6.45 IOCCO’s inspections of the four main warrant issuing departments have a slightly
different emphasis. The warrant issuing departments undertake an important function
which is comparable to the guardian and gatekeeper role performed by the SPoC for
communications data applications under Chapter 2 of Part 1 of RIPA. Warrant issuing
departments are a source of independent advice to the senior official and secretary
of state and perform a valuable pre-authorisation scrutiny of warrant applications and
renewals to ensure that they are (and remain) necessary and proportionate. The emphasis
during the warrant issuing department inspections is on the integrity of the authorisation
process and the level of challenge applied to the warrants by the secretaries of state
and their senior officials. After each inspection of a warrant issuing department IOCCO
compiles a detailed inspection report and action plan setting out the findings and
recommendations. The report is sent to the head of the warrant issuing department
(senior official) and is copied to the relevant secretary of state.
6.46 Inspection Reports. IOCCO’s reports contain formal recommendations with a
requirement for the interception agency or warrant issuing department to inform IOCCO
within two months on the progress that has been made. The inspection reports include:
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an assessment of the extent to which the recommendations from the previous
inspection have been achieved;
a summary of the number and type of interception documents selected for
inspection, including a detailed list of those warrants;
detailed comments on all warrants selected for further examination and
discussion during the inspection;
an assessment of the errors reported to IOCCO during the inspection period;
an account of the examination of the retention, storage and destruction
procedures;
an account of other policy or operational issues which the agency or warrant
issuing departments raised with IOCCO during the inspection;
an assessment of how any material subject to legal professional privilege (or
otherwise confidential material) has been handled;
a number of recommendations aimed at improving compliance and
performance generally;
an overall assessment of the interception agency’s or warrant issuing
department’s level of compliance with RIPA.
6.47 We shall describe some of the most frequent recommendations and a number of
other matters arising from the inspections later in this section of the report.
6.48 Number of inspections. In 2015 IOCCO maintained the pattern of inspecting
all nine interception agencies and the four main warrant issuing departments twice
yearly, making a total of 26 inspections. The length of each inspection depends on
the volume of interception warrants and the complexity of the particular interception
agency’s operations. The inspections of the larger or more complex interception agencies
are conducted by an inspection team of two or three and take place over three days.
The inspections of the smaller volume users are generally conducted by an inspection
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