UK authorities file 439,000 surveillance requests

PC Pro News | Feb. 23, 2007

By George Smith, Dick Destiny

UK law enforcement and security agencies filed 439,000 requests for details of phone calls and Internet activity in the 15 months to 31 March 2006, the latest report from the Communications Commissioner has revealed.

Of those requests 2,243 were for warrants permitting the interception of communications. Such warrants require the approval of a Government minister and under the terms of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) grant powers that could result in the bugging of an entire premises. These are likely to relate to offences such as organised crime and terrorism.

The remainder, which do not require ministerial approval, do not reveal the content of calls or email messages, but will disclose the number dialled, the location from where a mobile call is made, or the originating and destination IP address of an email.

The report also revealed that during 2005, 80 complaints about surveillance were submitted to Investigatory

Powers Tribunal established by RIPA. The tribunal completed investigations of 44 of these, plus 49 of the 51 carried over from 2004.

Just one investigation was resolved in favour of the complainants, but the details are secret under the terms of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal Rules 2000.

In the conclusion to the report, the outgoing Communications Commissioner, Swinton Thomas, said that the interception of communications is an invaluable weapon in the battle against terrorism and serious crime.

'I would like to stress that I have been very impressed by the care and very hard work which Ministers, the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies, and the civil servants working in this field, give to this work to ensure that it is carried out properly and in accordance with the law.'

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said that the report demonstrates the Government's 'creeping contempt for our personal privacy'.