IV. Legislation, Oversight and
Accountability
4.1
Public confidence in the acquisition and retention of data rests on the credibility and
practicality of the legal and oversight frameworks that govern it. In respect to the
government’s use of surveillance powers, these have developed in an ad hoc manner
as technology has advanced and there is growing consensus that the present legislation
and oversight regime will not be adequate for the future. In the view of one observer,
‘The agencies will work within the law, but the law has to be relevant to the digital age
and has to be enforceable. Only then can the security services provide a comprehensible
narrative to the public and Parliament such that there is a shared understanding of why
enforcement is necessary. This narrative is essential and overdue’.1
4.2
The legal framework governing surveillance, the interception of communications
and the use of data in the UK is notoriously complex. It is made up of different and
overlapping pieces of domestic primary and secondary legislation, European directives
and international conventions. The framework covers much of the remits of the lawenforcement agencies and SIAs. The principal parts of this framework are detailed below.
The Security Service Act 1989
4.3
The Security Service Act (SSA) 1989 placed MI5 on a statutory footing, under the authority
of the secretary of state and under the control of a director general. The Act outlined the
primary functions of MI5, namely:
•
•
•
4.4
To protect national security against threats from espionage, terrorism and
sabotage, from the activities of agents of foreign powers, and from actions
intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political,
industrial or violent means
To safeguard the economic well-being of the UK against threats posed by the
actions or intentions of persons outside the British Isles
To act in support of the activities of police forces and other law-enforcement
agencies in the prevention and detection of serious crime.
The SSA 1989 introduced the principle of MI5 requiring a warrant to undertake certain
activities, such as entry on or interference with property, which is unlawful unless
‘authorised by a warrant issued by the Secretary of State’.2
1.
2.
Martin Moore, ‘RIP RIPA? Snowden, Surveillance, and the Inadequacies of Our Existing
Legal Framework’, Political Quarterly (Vol. 85, No. 2, April/June 2014), p. 127.
See the Security Service Act 1989, s 3(1).