Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
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the compilation of a detailed inspection report and action plan setting out
the findings, recommendations and overall level of compliance. This is sent
to the head of the relevant public authority, i.e. the Chief Constable or Chief
Executive.
7.40 Number of inspections. In 2015 IOCCO conducted 72 communications data
inspections broken down as follows: 53 police force and law enforcement agency, 3
intelligence agency, 15 ‘other’ public authority inspections and the National Anti-Fraud
Network (NAFN) who act as the SPoC for all local authorities. In 2014 we conducted 90
communications data inspections as we were still conducting inspections of individual
local authorities. Since December 2014 local authorities have been required to submit
their requirements for communications data to the NAFN SPoC and therefore we no
longer inspect individual local authorities as we access the records at NAFN. During the
NAFN inspection we inspected 71 local authorities who had submitted applications in
2015.
7.41 The length of each inspection depends on the type of public authority being
inspected and their communications data usage. The inspections of the larger users, such
as police forces, are conducted by at least two inspectors and take place over three or
four days. The inspections of the smaller volume users are conducted by one inspector
and generally last one day.
7.42 Samples. It is important that IOCCO scrutinises a sufficient sample of the individual
applications, but inspecting and understanding systems is in the end as important as
scrutinising yet more individual applications. This is also in line with what Parliament
intended, i.e. that the Interception Commissioner would “check what is happening in
practice, rather than examine every case universally.”46 In the smaller public authorities
it is usually feasible for the inspectors to examine all of the applications submitted in
the period being examined. For the larger volume users sampling must be undertaken.
IOCCO conduct two types of sampling, random sampling where the application process
is examined from start to end, and query based examinations where key parts of the
process are scrutinised.
7.43 In 2015 IOCCO inspectors scrutinised at random approximately 15,000 applications
during the 72 inspections and over 117,000 applications were subject to query based
examinations.
7.44
It is worth noting the following points in relation to the random sampling:
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it is conducted at both ends of the process – i.e. from the public authority
records and the data obtained from the CSPs;
if the inspectors identify an error or issue during the random sampling which
may impact on other applications, the public authority is required to identify
other applications which may contain the same error or fault. Therefore,
46 Standing Committee F - Tuesday 28 March 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill Comments by
the Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Charles Clarke)
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