27 January 2011
The home secretary plans to introduce curbs on councils’ surveillance powers, after a review of what has been dubbed a ‘snoopers’ charter’.
Theresa May said yesterday that she intended to bring in legislation to make councils obtain magistrates’ approval if they wished to invoke the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. She also confirmed that councils would be able to use these powers only to prevent the most serious crimes.
Under the RIPA, councils have been able to deploy covert surveillance techniques to investigate individuals they believe are breaking the law, such as shopkeepers who persistently sell alcohol and tobacco to children and those who claim Housing Benefit fraudulently.
Use of the Act came under fire after it emerged some councils were using the powers disproportionately. Poole Borough Council, for example, was taken to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal after using RIPA to check on a resident it suspected was not living in the catchment area for her children’s school. The tribunal ruled last August that the council’s surveillance breached the family’s right to privacy.
The announcement on RIPA came as part of wider package of revisions to the government’s counter-terrorism powers.
May said: ‘For too long the balance between security and British freedoms has not been the right one.
‘The measures we are announcing will restore our civil liberties while still allowing the police and security services to protect us.’
Mehboob Khan, chair of the Local Government Association’s safer and stronger communities board, said the government had listened to the Local Government Group’s arguments.
‘Hopefully this announcement will dispel the myth that all councils use RIPA for is to snoop,’ he said.
‘Without being able to use covert surveillance, councils would have been fighting crime with one hand tied behind their backs.’
But Khan added that, in future, a magistrate’s approval of RIPA must be given swiftly to ensure investigations are not hindered.
‘In urgent cases, immediate access to a judge must be granted and all applications must be heard in private to prevent ongoing operations from being undermined.’
