Report of: Head of Law and Governance

Purpose of report: To present the revised Regulation of Investigatory Powers Surveillance Policy and Procedure for approval and adoption.

Recommendation: That the Committee approves the revised Surveillance Policy and Procedure at Appendix 1 to the report.

Emma Griffiths, Team Leader Lawyer introduced the report which presented the revised Regulation of Investigatory Powers Surveillance Policy and Procedure for approval and adoption.  She highlighted an error within the report in paragraph 3, that the report related to the Council’s use of the Regulation and Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) for the period April 2017 to March 2018, and that the report in fact related to the Council’s use of RIPA for the period April 2022 to March 2023, during which time the powers had not been used.

She further highlighted the strict parameters for the use of investigatory powers available to the Council in direct covert surveillance, the interception of communications data and the use of Covert Human Intelligence Sources, and confirmed that the Council had not used any of these powers available for several years, and had submitted a nil return to the IPCO in its statistical return for 2022.

In response to questions from the Committee, Emma Griffiths clarified the use of CCTV for either covert or direct intelligence evidence gathering, and what considerations the Council would have before doing so.  The Committee advised that a simple flowchart detailing the sequence of authorisation would be useful for inclusion within the policy, and would approve the policy subject to this being included and reported back to the next Committee meeting.  (ACTION)

The Committee were resolved to approve the revised Surveillance Policy and Procedure at Appendix 1 to the report, and delegated authority to the Head of Law and Governance to draft and include a flowchart detailing the authorisation process.

The Committee agreed to move agenda items 14 and 15 to the end of the meeting.