Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
Section 3
Transparency and Accountability
3.1
There continues to be significant public debate about the privacy implications
of public authorities’ use of investigatory powers, the capabilities the public authorities
have and might require, the adequacy of the existing legislation and the effectiveness of
the oversight mechanisms.
3.2
We continue to provide the public and Parliament with information about what
we do. Our aim is to improve transparency around how interception and communications
data powers are used by public authorities, the level of compliance being achieved by those
authorities and the safeguards in place. We believe this demonstrates our commitment
to understanding the key issues and informing the public about what we do.
3.3
Website and Twitter. In 2015 we included more information on our website
to make our published reports more accessible and ensure that our press statements,
speeches, guidance documents, inquiry reports and various evidence papers are available
to the public. Throughout the year we have published various documents on our website
(www.iocco-uk.info), issued press statements about matters under investigation and
published the findings of our inquiries. Our Twitter account (@iocco_oversight) has
allowed us to distribute news, engage with and answer questions from the public and
given us access to a wealth of opinion and debate about our field of work. It helps us to
keep up to date with relevant news and is a valuable tool for following discussions and
gleaning new information from academics, researchers, lawyers, civil society, think tanks,
computer scientists and key individuals working in our field. Both our website and Twitter
account are important media, enabling us to communicate and report promptly with
greater flexibility than we could otherwise achieve through our reports before Parliament.
3.4
Enhanced statistical requirements. We have for some time called for
enhanced and accurate statistical requirements to help clarify the volumes and types of
communications data acquired by public authorities. We were pleased that the Home
Office implemented our recommendations and amended the statistical requirements in
the revised Code of Practice accompanying Chapter 2 of Part 1 of RIPA. Section 7 of this
report sets out a number of the new statistics which have improved transparency and
accountability. We continue to push for similar statistical requirements for interception
under Chapter 1 of Part 1 of RIPA.
3.5
Public speaking. In 2015 we were delighted to accept invitations to speak publicly
about our role and work at numerous events including;
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Wilton Park: Privacy, public safety and policing in the digital age: a UK
perspective event;
The Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference in Brussels;
The Oxford Intelligence Group - Snowden, the Media and the State event;
The Scottish Public Law Group Surveillance event;
The International Communications Data and Digital Forensics (ICDDF)
conference;
@iocco_oversight