MR JUSTICE BURTON
Approved Judgment
(ii)
The indiscriminate trawling for information by interception, whether mass
or bulk or otherwise, would be unlawful, as would be the seeking, obtaining
or retention of material which is unnecessary or disproportionate. In this
context, even if, pursuant to a s.8(4) warrant enabling the interception of
substantial quantities of communications, large quantities are lawfully
intercepted, material can only be then accessed lawfully if it is necessary in
the interests of national security, for the purpose of preventing or detecting
serious crime or for the purpose of safeguarding the economic well being of
the United Kingdom (“the statutory purposes”); and it is only proportionate
if it is proportionate to what is sought to be achieved by lawful conduct.
(iii) Once it has been accessed by the Intelligence Services, either by specific
targeting or selection, intercepted material, including communications data,
may only be retained for as long as is necessary for the statutory purposes;
thereafter it must be destroyed.
(iv) In respect of all intercepted information which they receive and retain by
any of these means the Intelligence Services are accountable. The receipt,
handling and destruction of material must be carefully managed, monitored
and recorded, and all this information must be freely available for
inspection by the relevant authorised oversight bodies, who must be given
full and ongoing cooperation in their work.
CONCLUSION
161.
This has been a valuable exercise, in which, with the benefit of full and penetrating
advocacy on all sides, the Tribunal has been enabled to carry out a review of the
systems in relation to both Prism and/or Upstream and the s.8(4) warrant. We have
been able (as we state in paragraph 156) to satisfy ourselves that as of today there is
no contravention of Articles 8 or 10 by reference to those systems. As set out in
paragraphs 153 and 154 above, we have left open for further argument the question
as to whether prior hereto there has been such breach. We shall also proceed,
guided by the submissions we have heard and the conclusions we have reached, to
consider in closed whether there has been in fact any unlawful interception or
treatment of the Claimants’ communications.
Mr Justice Burton (President)
Mr Robert Seabrook QC
Mrs Justice Carr
The Hon Christopher Gardner QC
His Honour Geoffrey Rivlin QC