Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
duly considered and the requests were necessary and proportionate. We have already
made the point that the majority of these applications were submitted principally because
that individual had been a victim of an crime, e.g. a medical doctor, lawyer or MP receiving
malicious or threatening communications.
7.67 We have already made the point in our July 2015 report that the speed at which
the legislative changes were enacted and the resultant unrefined elements of the Code of
Practice has left us having to provide much needed clarity on Government policy rather
than simply auditing against it. We welcome the fact that public authorities come to us
for guidance in this area and will continue to be as helpful as possible, but make the point
that it is crucial for public authorities to also seek clarity from the Home Office to ensure
that the Home Office is aware of the policy issues and can seek to resolve them in future
legislation.
7.68 Errors (16 recommendations). Following our review of serious errors in our
July 2015 report a greater number of recommendations have been made for public
authorities to implement measures to reduce error instances, particularly where errors
can have serious consequences e.g. those which relate to internet protocol resolutions.
The inspectors also found, as was the case in previous years, instances where erroneously
acquired data of no relevance to an investigation had not been destroyed after the error
report was made to IOCCO as required by the Code of Practice. Communications Data
errors are considered in further detail later in this report.
Inquiries into Specific Issues
7.69 Journalistic source inquiry. We published our inquiry report52 in February
2015 and that report led to the Code of Practice amendments which we have previously
discussed in this report.
7.70 Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984. In October 2015 IOCCO
started its review of directions issued under section 94 of the Telecommunications Act
1984. Our review report was published on 7 July 2016.53
7.71 Institutional overuse. Our March 2015 report54 set out the findings of our inquiry
into whether there was significant institutional overuse of communications data powers
by police forces and law enforcement agencies. We concluded there was not but we did
find that a proportion of the applications did not adequately deal with the requirements
of necessity and proportionality and we found some examples where the powers had
been used improperly or where they had been used unnecessarily. We said that we would
52 http://iocco-uk.info/docs/IOCCO%20Communications%20Data%20Journalist%20Inquiry%20Report%20
4Feb15.pdf
53 http://iocco-uk.info/docs/56208%20HC33%20WEB.pdf
54 See Paragraphs 7.59 to 7.68 http://iocco-uk.info/docs/IOCCO%20Report%20March%202015%20(Web).
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