Councils urged to snoop more

Local councils have been urged to make more use of their powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to snoop on people they suspect of committing offences.

In his 2007 report published last month, Sir Paul Kennedy, the Interception of Communications Commissioner, said not enough councils were making use of their powers under Ripa to obtain people’s communications data.

Ripa is the law that regulates the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance, investigation and the interception of communications.

The report showed that more than 500,000 official requests for private communications data such as telephone records were made last year by official bodies. However, the report said only 1,707 requests had come from councils, which were seeking data such as phone and email records.

Out of the approximately 474 local authorities in England and Wales only 154 used the powers last year.

Sir Paul said: "Our inspections have shown that generally the local authorities could make much more use of communications data as a powerful tool to investigate crime.”

He said the councils that requested communications data could use this information to identify criminals who “persistently rip off consumers, cheat the taxpayer, deal in counterfeit goods, and prey on the elderly and vulnerable. [and] to identify fly-tippers.”

However, in a separate report published at the same time, Sir Christopher Rose, Chief Surveillance Commissioner, criticised local authorities for doing just that.

He said in his annual report that local authorities had a "tendency to expose a lack of understanding of the legislation" and demonstrated a "serious misunderstanding of the concept of proportionality"; for example using these powers to deal with minor offences such as fly-tipping or avoiding council tax.

Sir Christopher was particularly concerned that there was a risk of councils crossing the legal line into "intrusive surveillance", such as placing a surveillance device inside a private vehicle, which they are prohibited from doing.

Councils also cannot bug telephone conversations. This is a power reserved for the police and security services and which must be authorised by the Home Office.

Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), defended local authorities and said councils were often caught between a “rock and a hard place”; portrayed as using the powers for trivial offences yet told to use them more.