Interception
Use of interception
Interception is strictly regulated to ensure that its use is proportionate to the activity it is deployed against and in circumstances when required information can’t reasonably be obtained by other means.
Who can use interception?
Intelligence services, the police and other law enforcement agencies such as HM Revenue & Customs can use interception if they have a warrant signed by the Secretary of State.
All authorities that use interception must have regard to the Interception of Communications Code of Practice. The Interception of Communications Commissioner independently scrutinises and reports annually on all interception activity to ensure it is being pursued lawfully.
‘Intelligence’ not ‘evidence’
Crucially, the law does not allow any information obtained through interception to be used as evidence with only a few exceptions. The exceptions include:
- offences relating to interception itself
- offences relating to the Official Secrets Act
- non-criminal proceedings such as Special Immigration Appeals Commission hearings
Instead, authorities use intercepted information as ‘intelligence’ to help them disrupt and prevent serious criminal and terrorist acts. They also use interception to determine which investigation and surveillance techniques they should use to obtain evidence that they can use in court.
Using intercept evidence in court: a review
A debate has raged for many years about whether authorities could fight crime more effectively if the law changed to allow the use of intercepted material as evidence in court.
However, a two-year review of the use of intercept as evidence completed in 2005 concluded that the risks of using intercept evidentially outweighed the benefits of doing so. In addition, the current transformation of communications by computer technology meant that now is not the right time to change the law.
