Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
and the justifications for acquiring all of the material were proportionate; examination
of any urgent oral approvals to check the process was justified and used appropriately;
a review of those cases where communications subject to legal privilege or otherwise
confidential information (e.g. confidential journalistic or confidential medical) have been
intercepted and retained, and any cases where a lawyer is the subject of an interception.
6.81 Phase 2: GCHQ Audits – This phase will cover scrutinising the results of the
audits conducted by GCHQ on systems containing intercepted material and related
communications data (as mentioned earlier in this section of the report). IOCCO will also
now participate in some of the system audits to provide independent verification.
6.82 Phase 3: Safeguards - On an annual basis IOCCO will require an update on any
changes to the retention, storage and deletion arrangements for systems containing
intercepted material and related communications data and will scrutinise those changes
to ensure compliance with section 15 of RIPA. For some time we have said that we would
benefit from additional technical resource. The creation of an Investigatory Powers
Commission under the IP Bill would provide the opportunity to ensure this technical
resource is secured. Once the technical resource is in place IOCCO will seek to conduct
visits to collection sites and to examine the selection and filtering processes and technical
systems in more detail with a view to independently verifying that the interception
being carried out accords with the authorisation and that the intrusion and collection of
incidental material is minimized as far as is technically possible. In addition IOCCO will be
briefed on (or attend) training courses that are provided to GCHQ staff on RIPA related
matters. GCHQ also suggested some further elements to supplement phase 3 in the
form of additional briefings and demonstrations to enable deeper consideration of the
complex end to end interception process.
6.83 Phase 4: Sharing of intercepted material and related communications data
with international partners – We commissioned an investigation in 2015 into the
arrangements in place within GCHQ for the sharing of intercepted material and related
communications data with foreign partners in order to review compliance with the
section 15 safeguards. We are still in the process of carrying out this investigation. Once
our in-depth investigation has been completed we will require an annual update on
any changes or new arrangements. This is an area we have been discussing with our
international counterparts.
6.84 Phase 5: Error investigations: We will require annual analysis of any trends or
patterns in errors and a review of the measures put in place to prevent recurrence. On an
ad hoc basis IOCCO would seek to continue to investigate in more detail any significant
technical or otherwise serious errors.
6.85 We will provide an update in our 2016 report as to the implementation and
findings relating to this new five phase inspection regime.
36
@iocco_oversight