Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
10.10 In November 2014 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) was asked by the
former Minister of Justice to “investigate the circumstances surrounding the interception of
telephone calls from prisoners in England and Wales to the offices of Members of Parliament
(MPs), and to make recommendations to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place
to minimise the risk of such calls being recorded inappropriately in the future”. HMIP’s
report66 was published in July 2015 and they concluded that there was no evidence of
a widespread, deliberate attempt to monitor prisoners communications with MPs and
that the majority of MPs calls had been listened to in error. We were pleased to note
that the report acknowledged the weaknesses that we have identified over a number of
years in the systems and processes for protecting confidential calls. In the last 4 years
we have made nearly 380 recommendations in this area. HMIP’s recommendations
also address a number of the concerns and inadequacies that we have identified over
a number of years with the policies, training and awareness. We hope that the HMIP
inquiry report and recommendations will assist NOMS and the prisons to improve the
systems and procedures and to ensure that there are adequate protections in place for
communications between prisoners and their MPs and other confidential organisations
(e.g. legal calls). We note HMIP’s concerns that arrangements put in place to prevent
the recording of MPs calls will not be sufficiently well managed to remain effective over
time. We will continue to pay close attention during our inspections to the sufficiency
of the arrangements in place to protect prisoners communications with MPs and other
confidential organisations.
Inspection Regime
10.11 Objectives of inspections. The primary objectives of our inspections are to
ensure that:
•
•
•
•
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All interception is carried out lawfully and in accordance with the Human
Rights Act and the Prison Rules made under the Prison Act 1952 or section 13
of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland) 1953;
All prisons are fully discharging their responsibilities to inform the prisoners
that their communications may be subject to interception;
There is consistency in the approach to interception work in prisons;
The proper authorisations and risk assessments are in place to support the
monitoring of prisoners telephone calls and mail;
Appropriate measures are being afforded to the retention, storage and
destruction of intercept product.
10.12 Number of inspections. In 2015 our office conducted 74 inspections at 71
individual prisons. This is just over half of the establishments in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
10.13 The length of each inspection depends on the category and capacity of the prison
66 https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/07/prisoncommunications-report-web-2015.pdf
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