Introduction paras 1 to 6
Introduction
Chapter II of Part I (‘Chapter II’) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (‘the Act’) provides a statutory framework for the acquisition of communications data by public authorities and its disclosure by communications service providers. The provisions of Chapter II came into force on 5 January 2004.
2. Section 71 of the Act provides that the Secretary of State shall prepare and publish a draft code of practice, and consider representations made to him about the draft. The purpose of this consultation is to invite comments on the revised draft code of practice for Chapter II.
3. The revised draft code of practice replaces an earlier draft which was the subject of a public consultation in August 2001. Work on that code was shelved when the provisions of Chapter II and their relevance to a wide range of public authorities attracted adverse public and Parliamentary attention in summer 2002. That led to public consultation on access to communications data in March 2003 explaining the provisions and why a range of public authorities had a necessary and proportionate requirement for access to communications data. Subsequently Parliament debated and approved the implementation of Chapter II.
4. Although the original draft code of practice provided guidance for public authorities using the powers contained in Chapter II, that draft has been refined and developed over two years:
- to take account of practice;
- to clarify and better explain the original guidance;
- to address issues on which the original code had provided insufficient or no guidance (such as the role of a senior responsible officer within public authorities);
- to address issues of concern to Parliament (such as data protection safeguards and notification of individuals adversely affected by wilful or reckless failure to comply with the provisions of Chapter II);
- to reduce otherwise unnecessarily bureaucratic practices (for example, in relation to arrangements for recording of consideration given to authorising acquisition of data or requiring its disclosure in emergencies);
- to acknowledge that service providers may seek contributions towards their costs in disclosing data (in line with section 24 of the Act) and make explicit the response expected to meet public authorities’ operational and investigative requirements; and
- to address issues of concern to service providers (such as to clarify arrangements for dealing with malicious and nuisance calls).
5. An early draft of the revised code of practice was published on the Home Office web site in May 2005 for pre-consultation. We are grateful for the comments received at that time, and subsequently from members of public authorities, from communications service providers and from other interested parties. So far as possible, those comments have been considered and taken into account in the revised draft of the code.
6. This formal consultation provides a final opportunity to tell the Government if there is anything more or anything different that should be included in the code before it is put to Parliament for approval.