Report of the Independent Surveillance Review
3.78
65
In 2014, a total of 639 applications and 4,625 notices and authorisations were made by
public authorities other than the SIAs and police and law-enforcement agencies, under
Chapter II, Part I of RIPA 2000, excluding those given orally.41 Figure 5 shows that the
combined number of authorisations and notices by local authorities and other public
authorities amounted to just 1.3 per cent of the total, although this was an increase on
the 2013 figure (0.8 per cent).
Figure 5: Authorisations under Chapter II, Part I of RIPA 2000 and Notices by Type of Public
Authority, 2014.42
3.79
Not all public-sector bodies have felt it necessary to regularly use powers granted under
RIPA 2000. Of the ‘other public authorities’ granted powers under RIPA,43 thirteen
reported that they did not approve any applications, grant any authorisations or give
any notices during 2014, the same number as in 2013. 172 local authorities reported
41. IOCCO 2014 caveat: the main report has highlighted the fact that the statistics IOCCO is
currently able to collect under Paragraph 6.5 of the Communications Data Code of Practice
are flawed and potentially misleading. There are essentially two difficulties with the
authorisation and notice statistics: some public authorities may request multiple items of
data on one authorisation or notice; and there are a number of different workflow systems
in use by public authorities which have different counting mechanisms for authorisations
and notices. It should also be noted that an application for communications data may
contain a request for one item of data or many items of data, and some public authorities
require applicants to submit different applications for different types of communications
data. Because of the variability between applications and the inconsistent counting and
aggregation of data requests on a single authorisation and notice, the statistics, although
accurately recorded by each individual public authority, are not necessarily comparable.
42. May, Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner: March 2015.
43. Prior to the removal of powers from those identified under SI 2014/228.