BIG BROTHER WATCH AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
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3. “A Question of Trust”: Report of the Investigatory Powers Review
by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (“the
Anderson Report”)
160. The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, a role that has
existed since the late 1970s, is an independent person, appointed by the
Home Secretary and by the Treasury for a renewable three-year term and
tasked with reporting to the Home Secretary and to Parliament on the
operation of counter-terrorism law in the United Kingdom. These reports
are then laid before Parliament, to inform the public and political debate.
The Independent Reviewer’s role is to inform the public and political debate
on anti-terrorism law in the United Kingdom. The uniqueness of the role
lies in its complete independence from government, coupled with access
based on a very high degree of clearance to secret and sensitive national
security information and personnel.
161. The purpose of the Anderson Report, published in June 2015 and
identified by reference to the then Independent Reviewer of Terrorism
Legislation, was to inform the public and political debate on the threats to
the United Kingdom, the capabilities required to combat those threats, the
safeguards in place to protect privacy, the challenges of changing
technology, issues relating to transparency and oversight, and the case for
new or amended legislation. In conducting the review the Independent
Reviewer had unrestricted access, at the highest level of security clearance,
to the responsible Government departments and public authorities. He also
engaged with service providers, independent technical experts, nongovernmental organisations, academics, lawyers, judges and regulators.
162. The Independent Reviewer noted that the statutory framework
governing investigatory powers had developed in a piecemeal fashion, with
the consequence that there were “few [laws] more impenetrable than RIPA
and its satellites”.
163. With regard to the importance of communications data, he observed
that it enabled the intelligence services to build a picture of a subject of
interest’s activities and was extremely important in providing information
about criminal and terrorist activity. It identified targets for further work and
also helped to determine if someone was completely innocent. Of central
importance was the ability to use communications data (subject to necessity
and proportionality) for:
(a) linking an individual to an account or action (for example, visiting
a website, sending an email) through IP resolution;
(b) establishing a person’s whereabouts, traditionally via cell site or
GPRS data;
(c) establishing how suspects or victims are communicating (that is,
via which applications or services);