Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
have led to the identification of erroneous results averting serious consequences. Indeed
the post acquisition verification measures that a number of SPoCs have introduced may
in fact be partially responsible for the increase in errors reported to us.
Figure 16 2015 Errors breakdown by cause
DP 3%
DP other 1%
DP did not approve
acquisition 2%
CSP other 3%
(inc. incorrect type of data)
incorrect comms
address 8%
incorrect date /
time period 25%
excess data 2%
incorrect time /
date period 3%
incorrect comms
address 5%
SPoC
43%
CSP
13%
applicant
other 3%
incorrect date /
time period 10%
applicant
41%
incorrect
communications
address 28%
incorrect
type of
data 8%
SPoC other 2%
(inc. incorrect statutory purpose
& determining journalistic sources)
7.88 Figure 16 shows the breakdown of the 1199 errors by responsible party and
cause. 84% of errors were caused by applicants or SPoCs, 13% by CSPs and 3% by DPs.
7.89 Every error report received by IOCCO is assessed to determine the level of impact
upon an individual or investigation and whether the error instance may have the potential
to affect disclosures made to other public authorities or require changes to be made to
systems and procedures to prevent recurrence.
Serious Error Investigations
7.90 In our July 2015 report59 we sought to explain why the in-depth error investigations
that we conducted in 2014 constituted “serious errors.”
7.91
Paragraph 6.22 of the Code of Practice came into force in March 2015 and
59 http://www.iocco-uk.info/docs/2015%20Half-yearly%20report%20(web%20version).pdf
68
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